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SAINT EDMUND

KING AND MARTYR.

[AH riyhts reserved.]

y— ^*

LIBRARY

I'lUNTED BY THE

AKT AND I! (I OK COMPANY.
LONDON AND LEAMINGTON.

SAINT EDMUN

KING AND MARTYR

HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AND TIMES

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
THE TRANSLATIONS OF HIS INCORRUPT BODY, ETC.

From Original MSS.

BY THE

REV. ]. B. MACKINLAY, O.S.B.

Utque cruore suo, Gallos Dionysius ornat,

Grsecos Demetrius, gloria quisque suis ;
Sic nos Edmundus nulli virtute secundus

Lux patet, et patrise gloria magna suae.
Sceptra manum, diadema caput, sua purpura corpus

Ornat ei, sed plus vincula, mucro, cruor.

(Ex libra Abbatia de Rufford in Bibl. Colt).

LONDON AND LEAMINGTON

art anb Book Company

NEW YORK, CINCINNATI & CHICAGO : BENZIGER BROS.

THE SONS OF MY ALMA MATEK,

WHO TRAINED UNDER

SAINT EDMUND'S PATRONAGE

ESTEEM IT THEIR GLORY TO SHOW FORTH

HIS HEROIC SPIRIT
IN A LIFE OF SELF-SACRIFICE

AND
HIS KINGLY VIRTUES IN A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD,

THIS TRIBUTE

TO OUR GREAT MARTYR

IS HUMBLY AND RESPECTFULLY

DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

THE materials for the following history have been
collected during the past ten years, in intervals of
leisure from busy work in monastery and college,
and subsequently on the mission. This desultory
method of storing and arranging material will account
for many faults, which, it is feared, mar the work,
but which, it is hoped, will meet with the reader's
kind indulgence.

The work is purposely entitled a History of th<:
Life and Times of St. Edmund. A mere Life of the
saint could be compressed into a few pages, but the
mass of historical and traditional lore, which illustrates
his character and position in the England of his day,
calls for wider treatment. Hence the endeavour to
interweave the history of East Anglia, the narrative
of the Danish invasion and the customs of Saxon
times, into the great martyr's biography.

For centuries St. Edmund's incorrupt body exercised
a living influence over the nation, and kept his per-
sonality ever present. To end his history with his

Vlll PREFACE.

martyrdom would leave unrecorded this important
place, which he occupied in the hearts of the faithful
and in the annals of the country. Accordingly, the
sacred body has been traced through the vicissitudes
of a thousand years to its present resting-place, and
his other relics enumerated and described. Distinct
chapters treat of the miraculous power which the
people believed him to wield, and of the devotion
which his life and character inspired ; while a brief
sketch of the magnificent memorial which rose over
and around his shrine finishes the work.

Parallel with this long and continuous history of
the saint run the numerous and varied records, in
medieval manuscript and modern print, which furnish
the materials. To omit all description of these
interesting documents and their authors would rob
St. Edmund's history of one of its most beautiful
features — the tribute which literature has paid to him
through the ages. Their introduction, however, re-
mained a difficulty. They admitted of three methods
of treatment — (1) a mere enumeration in the preface,
(2) a dry appendix, or (3) an account of each of them in
turn with the chapter to which it related. Following
at least two notable examples, l choice has been made
of the third method, and in the Authorities at the
head of each chapter the reader will find a concurrent
history of the literature which perpetuated the name

1 Butler's " Lives of the Saints," and Green's "Short History
of the English People."

PREFACE. IX

and memory of the martyr king of East Anglia.
St. Edmund's Bury has at last found a place in
the Eolls Series, and the first volume of " Memorials of
St. Edmund's Abbey" has recently seen the light.1
The editor, Mr. Thomas Arnold, M.A., in the intro-
duction, p. xiii., thus compares St. Cuthbert and
St. Edmund : " Although nearly two centuries divided
the death of St. Edmund from that of St. Cuthbert,
and there is no reason, except the common possession
of sanctity and heroic endurance, for supposing any
special resemblance in their characters, yet when we
inquire into the development of the cultus which was
consecrated to their memory, we are struck by some
remarkable points of likeness. Of both the incorrup-
tion of the mortal remains was confidently believed ;
over the tombs of both arose, first chapels, then
churches, then magnificent cathedrals. Eardulf the
bishop, and Eadred the abbot, dreading a visit from
the ruthless Northmen, took up the body of St. Cuth-
bert from Lindisfarne in 875, and wandered about
with it for seven years, settling at last at Chester-le-
Street. Egelwin the priest, alarmed for the safety of
the treasure of which he was the guardian, when
Thurkill made a descent in the Orwell in 1010, took
up the body of St. Edmund from its resting-place at

1 "Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey," edited by Thomas Arnold,
M.A., University College, Oxford, Fellow of the Royal University
of Ireland ; vol. I. Published by the authority of the Lords Com-
missioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the
Master of the Rolls, 1890.

• X . PEEFACE.

Beodricsworth, and wandering up to London, remained
there three years, till the state of Suffolk was quiet
enough to allow of his returning home. Miracles
prevented St. Cuthbert's body from being carried over
to Ireland; miracles prevented St. Edmund's body
from becoming a prey to the pious cupidity of the
Londoners. On the completion of Abbot Baldwin's
new church at Bu,ry in 1095, there is a solemn
translation of the body of St. Edmund to the shrine
prepared for it, Bishop Wakeline, and Eanulf the
king's chaplain, being the presiding functionaries. On
the completion of Durham cathedral in 1104, there is
a yet more solemn translation of the body of St.
Cuthbert from the cemetery in the cloister into the
church, the same Eanulf, now bishop of Durham,
presiding, and the ceremony being crowned by a
visitation of the relics, which verifies their reported
incorruption. A similar visitation of the relics of St.
•Edmund, resulting in a similar verification, is made
by Abbot Samson in 1198."

Mr. Arnold is not so happy in his further remarks.
We doubtless know a great deal more of St. Cuthbert's
real life and character than of St. Edmund's, but it
is an exaggeration to write that we know "next to
nothing " of the latter. To assert that St. Abbo drew
on a free and strong imagination for his description
and character of St. Edmund is scarcely justifiable,

• considering that the martyr's person and exploits
were well known in St. Abbo's day. The present

PREFACE. XI

writer has not started on the supposition that the
greater part of the information regarding St. Edmund
is myth, the concoction of men " whose information
is scanty, and their imagination strong." Judging
from references in existing manuscripts that the old
scribes drew from sources long since perished, the
compiler of these pages takes their works as a safe
basis. He examines them fairly, tries to supply what
is wanting from other sources, compares their facts
with ancient and modern traditions, traces their
agreement with the general history of the times, and
thus endeavours to piece together the lost history of
St. Edmund. It is not, however, maintained that no
myth has grown around St. Edmund's name, or that
in the course of a thousand years no legend has crept
into his history, but abundant facts remain in con-
nection with the saint's life which are credible and
authentic. For instance, Ethelwerd and the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle refer to a king of East Anglia
between St. Ethelbert and St. Edmund, and therefore
support Gaufridus, who gives his name and the
particulars of his reign. Gaufridus thus becomes a
reliable authority on one point, and may be equally
considered reliable in his account of the parentage
and fatherland of St. Edmund, which fits in with
Charlemagne's known protection of English exiles
and other facts of contemporary history. The supposi-
tion of Battely, that a certain Florentius invented the
parentage of St. Edmund one or two centuries after

Xll .PREFACE.

Gaufridus, is baseless and far-fetched. North Ham-
burg, not Nuremburg, as the place of St. Edmund's
birth, and the local traditions of Hunstanton further
fix the probability of the narrative of Gaufridus.
The legend of Lothbroc or Lothparch has at least a
substratum of truth. Mr. Sharon Turner's identifica-
tion of the Lothbroc of St. Edmund's history with
Kagnar Lodbrog, who, he says, met his death in
Deira between 862 and 867, cannot be accepted in
the face of all the Icelandic writers who assign his
death to the eighth century and not the ninth.1 On
the other hand, Adam of Bremen's testimony, the
local traditions of Reedham, Caistor-St.-Edmund's and
its neighbourhood, Hinguar's avowed object to invade
East Anglia (which is mentioned by all chroniclers),
and the name of Bern or Wern in the list of the ten
sea-kings establish the identity of Lothparch, and
confirm all that Gaufridus relates. His manuscript
is therefore an historical fragment of great value.
Similar records supply evidence of a like character,
which cannot reasonably be considered fictitious,
merely on opinion of what should be.

Two views of St. Edmund's martyrdom are current,
but easily reconciled. The first — represented by
the Saxon Chronicle, Asser, Ethelwerd, Matthew of
Westminster, and several of the St. Edmund's Bury
annals — states that Edmund fought bravely and
manfully (" atrociter pugnavit.") According to the

1 Introduction to " Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey," vol. I.
p. xix.

PKKFACE. Xlii

second — represented by St. Abbo, Florence and Mal-
mesbury — the saint, when attacked by the Danes, made
no resistance. Each view is correct from its own
standpoint. In one, St. Abbo and those who follow
him aim at illustrating the meekness, self-sacrifice
and resignation of the saint. They accordingly dwell
chiefly on the martyrdom, and describe the Danes
and their two invasions in general terms,1 merely to
contrast the pagan savagery with the Christian
Edmund's gentleness. The various attacks and the
consequent battles are foreign to their purpose and
they ignore them. The second view is more historical.
It pictures the invasion of East Anglia in 865 by
Hinguar, and Edmund's valiant stand ; and the second
invasion of 870, crowned by the final struggle, and
the holy king's surrender of himself to the enemy in
order to save his people from further bloodshed.
Together, the two views give a perfect delineation of
St. Edmund's character, which was one of heroic and
unselfish bravery.

In closing this introduction I desire to tender my
heartfelt thanks to the numerous friends who have
aided me in my work. I gratefully acknowledge the
assistance of the late Father Lazenby, S.J., of Bury-
St.-Edmund's, who encouraged me to write and placed
his notes at my service, a kindness continued by his
superiors after his death. The librarians at Oxford and
Cambridge always showed courtesy and a willingness

1 St. Abbo speaks of the two invasions as one.

to 'inbgjBf, dae mo doaibt to aj
Father Sfti •!••»•, &J. I
atuiulBd «e im LoaMls* by a
I them Bade aad hare alvzr? Tklaed aiaee. M T
«peoal tfcaak« are doe to Ac Eigfct Ber. Abfcot
-Stiww, OJ>.BU, lor bis leiiaoai of BUT ana nil lifil. aad
to odoeis wiwee ral^aMff- kiats will 2am for these
pages aaj .sagcmi wtneai tkcj B»T aVjuit^

Lastly. IB gmag the hnfeatr off St. Fi IBM ail to the
pobfic, I belunktad eoadeaBaaad ••n.^i • tedly
eqaeaaoai or «f4¥?i"> vhieh aaaj be

- ., \-.\: ;._ : -' ::: : ; H ".-::-.-: ::.r •.:! 1:

J. R MACK1XLAY
19r

CONTENTS.

I'ttr/e,
PREFACE . vii

PRAYER TO ST. EDMUKD xix

CHAPTER I.

Introductory — St. Edmund's Kingdom. Its Rulers and

Saints 1

CHAPTER II.
Saint Edmund's Parentage and Birth ... .. 21

CHAPTER III.

King Offa of East Anglia. St. Edmund succeeds him. St

Edmund is anointed and crowned ... . . . 34

CHAPTER IV.
St Edmund's Sovereignty. His Character and Rule ... 69

CHAPTER V.
St. Edmund and the Danes ... 83

CHAPTER VI.
The Struggle with the Norsemen 97

CHAPTER VII.
St. Edmund's Passion 122

CHAPTER VIIL
Edmund the Saint, " Kynge, Martyre, and Virgyne " 132

XVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

The Translations of St. Edmund's Body. The Witnesses of

its Incorruption. The Martyr's Relics ... ... 141

§ 1. The Finding of the Martyr's Head and Body, and
their Burial at Heglesdune (Hoxne) on Monday,
December 30, A. D. 870 ... ... ... ... 141

§ 2. The First Translation of St. Edmund's Body to
Beodricsworth (St. Edmund's Bury) by Bishop
Theodred I., A.D. 903 ... ... ... ... 146

§ 3. Oswene, the First Witness of St. Edmund's In-
corruption, before A.D. 925 ... ... ... 153

§ 4. Bishop Theodred II., called the Good, the Second
Witness of St. Edmund's Incorruption, A.D. 945
or 950 ... ... ... ... ... ... 154

§ 5. The Youth Leofstan, the Third Witness of St.

Edmund's Incorruption, about A.D. 980 ... ... 158

§ 6. The Monk Ailwin, the Fourth Witness of St.

Edmund's Incorruption, A.D. 990 to 1032. ... 160

§ 7. The Second Translation of St. Edmund's Body.

It is taken to London, A.D. 1010 ... ... ... 164

§ 8. The Third Translation of St. Edmund's Body. It
is taken back to Beodricsworth (St. Edmund's Bury),
A.D. 1013 172

§ 9. The Fourth Translation of St. Edmund. His holy
Body is moved to King Canute's new Church,
Oct. 18, A.D. 1032 176

§ 10. Abbot Leofstan, the Fifth Witness of St. Edmund's

Incorruption, A.D. 1050 ... ... ... ... 187

§ 11. The Fifth Translation by Abbot Baldwin, on

Sunday, April 29, A.D. 1095 ... ... ... 191

§ 12. Tolinus the Sacrist, the Sixth Witness of St.
Edmund's Incorruption, with three others, verifies
the sacred Body in the reign of Abbot Baldwin,
A.D. 1094—1095 ... ... ... ... 199

§ 13. The Sixth Translation of St. Edmund's Body, by

Abbot Samson, Nov. 23, A.D. 1198 ... ... 205

§ 14. Abbot Samson, the Seventh Witness of St. Ed-
mund's Incorruption, Nov. 26, A.D, 1198 .. ... 216

§ 15. The Seventh Translation of St. Edmund's Body
to France, by Louis the Dauphin, Sept. 11, A.D.
1217 ... ... ... ... ... ... 221

§ 16. The Eighth Translation of St. Edmund's Body to

the Basilica of Saint Sernin, Toulouse, A.D. 1219 ... 228

CONTENTS. xvii

CHAP. IX. — Continued.

§17. The Ninth Translation of St. Edmund's Body ... 239
§ 18. The Tenth Translation of St. Edmund's Body, by

his Grace Charles de Montchal, Archbishop of

Toulouse, A.D. 1644 ... ... ... ... 240

;? 19. St. Edmund's Body and its present Resting-Place,

A. D. 1644 to 1892 ... .. ... ... 250

§ 20. Minor Relics of St. Edmund in Ancient and

Modern Times ... ... ... ... ... 255

CHAPTER X.
The Miracles of St. Edmund ... ... ... ... 270

CHAPTER XI.
Devotion to St. Edmund ... ... ... ... 307

CHAPTER XII.
St. Edmund's Patrimony ... ... ... ... 352

ILLUSTRATIONS, PLANS, ETC.

St. Edmund ... ... ... ... ... Frontispiece.

Map of East Anglia, &c. ... ... ... ... Page I

Abbot Baldwin's great Church of St. Edmund, in the

15th century ... ... ... ... ... 191

The Basilica of Saint Sernin at Toulouse ... ... ... 228

King Henry VI. at St. Edmund's Shrine (from Dom
Lydgate's "Life and Acts of St. Edmund,"

Harleian MS. 2278) 307

Ground Plan of St. Edmund's Abbey ... ... ... 352

Seal of modern St. Edmund's ... ••• 411

PRAYER TO ST. EDMUND.

O precious charbouncle of martir's alle,
O hevenly gemme, saphir of stabilnesse,

Thyn hevenly dewli of grace, let dou falle
In to my penne, enclosed with rudnesse :
And blissed martir, my stile do so dresse,

Undir thi wingis of proteccion,

That I nat erre in my translacion.

O richest rube, rubefied with blood
In thi passion, be ful meek suffrance

Bound to a tre, lowly whan thou stood,
Of arwes sharp suffryng ful gret penaunce,
Stable as a wal, of herte in thi constannce,

Directe my stile which I have undirtake

In thi worshepe, thi legende for to make.

O amatist, with peynes purpureat
Emeraud trewe, of cliastite most clone,

Which, nat withstandyng thi kyngli hih estat,
Ffor Cristis feith suffredist peynes keene,
Wherefore, of mercy, my dulnesse to susteene,

Into my brest sende a confortatiff

Of sum fair language t' embelisshe with thi liff.

Send dou, of grace, thi licour aureat

Which enlumynyth these rethoriciens
To write of martirs, ther passions laureat :

And causith also, these fressh musiciens,

Ffals lust avoided of epicuriens,
Of glorious seyntes the tryumphes for to synge
That suffred peyne for Crist in ther levynge.

Now glorious martir of Bury cheef patron,

In Saxonie born, of the blood roial,
Conveie my mater, be my proteccion,

Githe in thi support myn hope abidith al,

Directe my penne of that I write shal,
Ffor so thi favour fro me nat ne twynne
Upon thi story ryght thus I will be gynne.

LYDGATE, (Harleian MS. 2278, fol. 9 b,
collated with Harleian MS. 4826.)

PRAYER TO ST. EDMUND.

O precious charbouncle of martir's alle,

O hevenly gemme, saphir of stabilnesse,
Thyn hevenly dewh of grace, let dou falle

Githe in thi support inyn hope abidith al,
Directs my penne of that I write shal,
Ffor so thi favour fro me nat ne twynne
Upon thi story ryght thus I will be gynne.

LYDGATE, (Harleian MS. 2278, fol. 9 b,
collated with Harleian MS. 4826. )

SAINT EDMUND,

KING AND MARTYR.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory — St. Edmund's Kingdom — Its Rulers and
Saints.

[Anthorities—St. Bede's "Ecclesiastical History" is the chief authority for
the events of this chapter to the year 731. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
William of Malmesbury's " History of the Kings " and " History of the
Prelates," Ethelwerd's Chronicle, and similar annals supplement St. Bede's
History. Nicholas Harpsfeld's " Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica," Duaci,
1622, and Blomefield's " History of Thetford," printed at Fersfield
1739, are secondary though valuable authorities. For well known
historical facts in this and the following chapters, only standard works
like Lingard's "History of England," and Green's "Short History of the
English People," have been referred to. For geography throughout the work
consult Camden's "Britania," with McCullock's "Geographical Dictionary,"
or Bell's "Gazetteer of England and Wales."]

THAT portion of England which bulges out into the Geographical

position of

German Ocean in the torm 01 a peninsula, and com- East Angiia.
prises the present counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Cambridge, was called by the early Anglo-Saxons
East Angiia or East England. The sea encompassed
this district on the north and east. On the south
the river Stour separated it from the neighbouring
kingdom of Essex. Impassable woods, " deep lakes
and stagnant pools," l protected its western frontier.
The fens and marshes, two or three miles in breadth,
which cover the flat lands of the west, stretch a
distance of sixty or seventy miles from the Cam to

1 William of Malmesbury.

2 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Wisbeach, and descend in river and morass to join
the wide estuary of the Wash. These marshes, to-
gether with the dense forests of the south-west
totally secluded East Anglia from the mainland.
One clear and open space alone connected the
peninsula with the rest of the island, and this the
East Anglians afterwards defended against the fre-
quent incursions of their neighbours by four ditches
with corresponding lofty walls of earth. The prin-
cipal of these, called St. Edmund's ditch, runs across
Newmarket Heath. The common people call it
" Devil's Dyke," its gigantic proportions marking it
out as the work of evil spirits rather than of men. l
The dykes completed the boundaries of the province
over which Providence destined St. Edmund to reign —
a man who, according to William of Malmesbury, was
" devoted to God and ennobled by descent from
ancient kings."

st. Edmund's Previous to th e Cliristiaii era, St. Edmund's kingdom
the8Britw«u ei was inhabited by the Celtic tribe of Iceni, the Ceni-
magni of Ciesar. Traces of the first inhabitants still
survive in the names Ikensworth, Ickworth, Ick-
borough, Iken. Icklingham, and lastly Ikenild Street,
the great consular road of the Iceni. The last king of
the Iceni was Prsesutagus, the consort of the famous
British queen Boadicea, whose valiant resistance and
tragic end finally brought East Britain under the
sway of the Romans.

1 It is doubtful who constructed these great walls. Some attri-
bute them to Canute (A.D. 1017), who certainly made them the
boundary of St. Edmund's Liberty. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
mentions them as early as A. D. 905, and Matthew of Westminster
makes them the site of a battle fought in that year between Edward
the Elder and Ethelwald the Rebel. St. Abbo, who wrote thirty
years before Canute's reign, also mentions the dykes. Most pro-
Irably St. Edmund himself, whose names they bear, raised them as.
a defence against the Mercians and Danes.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. 3

The Eoman governor Agricola, in dividing Britain Under tte

Romans.

into provinces, made the territory of the Iceni part
of Flavia Cresariensis. In a few years the consular
roads Ikenild Street, Jeddar Way, Stone Way, Via
Devana, and perhaps Ermine Street, linked it with
the important cities of Bath, Chester, Verulam, York,
and London, while its general fertility, its clear
and bracing climate, its picturesque scenery and
nearness to Gaul, its hunting-grounds and rich
pastures, attracted thither every class of citizen.
East Britain thus became a favourite field of
Eoman civilization. Camp, station, and town, places
like Brancaster, Sitomagus (Thetford), Caistor, Venta
Icenorum (Norwich), Villa Eaustini (Bury - St. -
Edmund's), soon sprang up on plain and river-side.
Vestiges of Eoman art, Eornan remains unearthed
from time to time all through the district, show
that the ancient civilization worked as great a change
in East Britain during its 300 years' occupation, as
modern civilization has done in the same or shorter
time in America and Australia.

The Eoman province of Britain flourished till the
middle of the fourth century, when it fell before the
attacks of the barbarians. At first Eome attempted
to defend its most western province. The Count of
the Saxon Shore pitched one of his chief camps at
Brancaster on the Wash, in order to guard the ex-
posed coasts of East Britain and North Gaul. All
precautions, however, proved ineffectual. The waves
of barbarian invasion still came on, forcing the
Eoman legions to retreat to the capital, and abandon
Britain and all outlying provinces. The Britons with
the Iceni thus found themselves utterly without
resources to resist the savage hordes who poured
from the northern mountains of the island upon their
cities and plains.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The helplessness of the Britons after the departure
of the Eomans, together with the incursion of the
Picts and Scots, conspired to bring about the forma-
tion of St. Edmund's kingdom. At the time there
dwelt among the marshes of Friesland and the Elbe,
or in the peninsula which parts the Baltic from the
North Sea, three kindred tribes of low-German Teu-
tonic race. The first tribe, the Jutes, lived on the
north of the peninsula, on the dry and sandy heaths
of Jutland, called in early times Zealand, because of
the purple waters which fringed the green meadows
of its coast ; to the south of the Jutes, in the rich
farm-lands of Sleswig, or Angleland, as the great
Alfred delighted to call it, the Angles had settled
down ; further south again, amid the sand-flats and
fen-lands of the Weser and the Elbe, and on the
very borders of the Eoman empire, hovered the Saxons,
— the only name by which southern Europe knew
the other two tribes. All three, Jutes, Angles, and
Saxons, practised piracy on the high seas. In war-
ships, contemptuously named cliiules, or keels, they rode
the wildest billows of the ocean, " in tempests dread-
ful to others, but to them a subject of joy." They
were thus scouring the North Sea when the Eomans
abandoned Britain, and the Picts and Scots swarmed
down from the wilds of Caledonia. To invite them to
land and give assistance in repelling the invaders
from the north was the last despairing policy of the
British chiefs, who little thought of the consequence
of admitting the sea-pirates into the island. The new
allies quickly drove Pict and Scot back to their
mountain-fastnesses, and at once began a war of
conquest and extermination unparalleled in the bar-
barian invasion of any other country of Europe. Every
vestige of Eoman civilization in Britain vanished
before the sword of Angle, Jute, and Saxon. Towns

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYU. 5

and villages, palaces and cottages, were levelled to
the ground. The inhabitants fled as from a devour-
ing conflagration ; the nobles made their escape to
the continent or the western hills ; the common
people took refuge in the churches ; but the enemy
set fire to the holiest sanctuaries, and the victim who
escaped the sword perished by the flames. In a
hundred years -the old race had entirely disappeared
before the conquerors' advance.

The Jutes first began the conquest under Hengist |°^aa^0dn0°ff
and Horsa, who founded the kingdom of Kent. Then Sngdoms.
other bands, eager for plunder, put to sea from their
German homes. The Saxons (A.D. 477) under ^lla
and his three sons coasted along the hills and dark
woodlands from Beachy Head to Selsey Bill, disem-
barked, and after a fierce struggle with the natives
founded the kingdom of the Suth-Seaxe, or Sussex.
Five years later the war-ships of Cerdic ploughed
the Channel waters as far as the Isle of Wight.
Their crews landed at Portsmouth, took possession
of the neighbouring country, and founded the kingdom
of West-Seaxe, or Wessex. Before Wessex extended
its conquests to Oxford and Gloucester, the Middle-
Seaxe and East-Seaxe crept up the Thames, and
on its northern bank established the kingdom of Essex.

The advance of Jutes and Saxons, however, is of The formation

of the English

minor importance compared with the later advance Kingdoms,
of the Angles, " the fiercest in battle of all the bar-
barians." Owing to the superior prowess of these
Angles, the three tribes assumed the common name
of " English." By that name they were first known
to the Britons, and fifty years later to Pope St.
Gregory,1 when he met their slaves exposed for sale
in the Eoman market-place.

1 St. Gregory in his letters styles them the "gens Anglorum,"
"the English people."

6 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYR.

The Angles put to sea from the original Angleland,
when the conquest of South Britain had almost ceased.
A fleet of their chiules, under the command of Seomel,
sailed up the Humber, took York, and founded the
kingdom of Deira. Ida, another chief, with forty of
the rude war-ships of his race, followed in the
wake of Seomel, and founded, north of the Tees, the
kingdom of Bernicia. Bernicia and Deira with the
Frith of Forth as their northernmost boundary formed,
in after times, the single kingdom of Northumbria.
Up the southern tributaries of the Humber, the
water gateway of North Britain, other " wolves, dogs,
whelps from the kennel of barbarism," as St. Gildas
from his abbey in Brittany styled them, penetrated
into the heart of the island. They sailed up the
Trent, took possession of Nottinghamshire, and, striking
off along the Soar, colonized Leicestershire. Thus by
degrees the whole district of central England grew
into the kingdom of Mercia, so named either from
the marshes of Lincolnshire on its borders, or from
the marks or boundaries which on every side defined
its frontier.
The formation The first of these English conquests and the one

of East Anglia. , ° .

which mostly concerns this history was on the east
of Mercia. It was preeminently Anglia, or England.
Eull twenty years before Ida and Seomel overran
Northumbria, and three score years before Mercia
became a kingdom, the East Angles drew up their
long keels on the wide sand-flats of the coast of
the Iceni, or left them secure in its numerous river
creeks. The eastern coast, on which the pirates first
landed, presented no high and rugged cliffs or walls
of rock, like Bamborough or Beachy Head. On the
contrary, its numerous estuaries, the many navigable
streams which flowed through the broads and sand-
banks, rather invited than opposed invasion. The

SATXT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 7

Angles accordingly ascended the Stour, and, leaving
their kinsmen in Essex undisturbed, spread them-
selves over the land to the north. Some rowed up the
picturesque and wood-flanked Orwell ; others swarmed
up the Yare, the "Waveney, and the Ouse. Once in
the country, the Roman highways led them to spacious
cities and to rich fields for plunder. Xo record is left
of the struggle with the inhabitants. Many fled, while
others were either massacred or died in slavery.
Hardly a trace of them remained to guide the new
nation, whose history now began where theirs had
ended.

The land thus roughly seized did not differ consider- physical

description of

ably from the old country which the English had East Angiia.
just abandoned. In area both districts measured about
5,000 square miles ; both were from 70 to 80 miles in
length and breadth. They also resembled each other
in natural features. Even now the two countries are
wonderfully alike. The snug and homely farm-houses
of Sleswig, the hedgerows, the cattle quietly feeding
in the meadows, carry us in imagination to the east
of England. The low sea-coast of Yarmouth, the
level fen-lands of Xorth Cambridgeshire, the salt
marshes of the Lincolnshire border, the scarcity of
wood, the general flatness, with only slight undulations
here and there, the sloping grass-land on the banks
of the Waveney, — all have their counterpart in the
old home of the East English. The new conquest
possessed other advantages of which the wild half-
cultivated fatherland could not boast. Roman art
had transformed into a paradise a land by nature
similar to their own, by laying it out in gardens and
groves and pastures and hunting-grounds ; Roman
engineers had linked together its numerous towns
and villas by a network of magnificent roads, unsur-
passed save by our modern railways. Finally, a dry

8 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

and salubrious climate added its attractions. True,
the east winds were sharp and keen in winter and
spring, but the air which blew over the land from
the sea, unimpeded by mountain or wood, was clear
and bracing. It suited the temper of the invaders,
and doubtless aided in forming those " merry, pleasant,
jovial " East Anglians of William of Malmesbury's
Chronicle, who gloried in being St. Edmund's subjects.
estabHsiied'in ^n ^ie country whose early history and natural
East Angiia. features are thus faintly outlined, the Angles settled
down, family by family, kinsfolk by kinsfolk, in their
" ham," or " ton," or " wick." Each freeman had his
freeland ; each settlement of freemen had its wise
men or eldermen, who administered justice and framed
laws under the sacred tree, or on the moot-hill — the
original of our modern market-place, — round which
home and farm clustered. So far in habits of life
and government the invaders preserved their primi-
tive traditions. Fresh circumstances, however, begot
fresh requirements. The friendly feeling between
kindred and kindred which existed on the shores of
the Baltic made war almost unknown there. Captains
or chiefs were seldom necessary. In time of danger,
indeed, the Angles would choose a leader to marshal
them for battle ; but, the danger over, he stepped
back into the rank and file. Now things were different:
the Britons hovered on their borders ; the limits of
the neighbouring kingdoms were undefined ; invasion
or war frequently threatened them. Under these cir-
cumstances a permanent chief became a necessity.
The division of plunder, too, and the partition of land
called for a supreme and stable ruler. Wessex in
similar difficulties elected Cerdic its konniny, can-niny,
or ableman ; Kent chose Hengist. In imitation of
these the North Folk and South Folk of East Angiia

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 9

chose Uffa as king, and their sovereigns down to St.
Edmund's time they styled Uffings.

All our chroniclers agree that St. Edmund sprang ^'a™^1^'1'
from the "ancient and noble stock" of the Uffings.
Something in those bold leaders and their dauntless
followers gave early promise of the martyr king who
closed their illustrious line. They all possessed natural
virtues of no mean order. Eespect for authority,
reverence for purity, bravery and fearlessness in war,
boldness in the cause of right, frankness and love of
truth were their distinguishing characteristics. Quali-
ties like these, guided and perfected by the faith of
Christ, produced the saintly and heroic kings whom
history presents to us as the worthy progenitors of
St. Edmund, their crowning glory, as he was the
fairest blossom of their stock and the fulfilment of
all their promise. The grace of God, it is true, ener-
gised his own individual labour, and primarily made
Edmund a saint ; but in the order of nature the
traditions of his house had a share in moulding his
character. The example of his ancestors stimulated
him ; he emulated their virtues ; he modelled himself
on them as on men renowned throughout the Churches.
This will be made evident by a glance at those
ancestral portraits which the youthful Edmund always
had before his eyes.

During the reigns of King Uffa and of Tytil, his st. Edmund':

ancestry.

son and successor, no wave of that Christian teaching
which formed the future saints of their line reached
the shores of East England. Even Eedwald, the third
Uffing, can scarcely be regarded as a Christian king.
Policy rather than conviction actuated his religion.
He accepted the baptism of the black-robed strangers
at Canterbury merely to please Ethelbert, his over-
lord, to whom Pope St. Gregory wrote : " Hasten to
infuse into the minds of the kings subject to you

10 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYK.

the knowledge of one God, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost." Eedwald while in Kent assisted at the
solemn sacrifice, and listened to the religious chant
of the Roman monks, but on returning home " he
departed from the sincerity of the faith," writes
Venerable Bede, " and, like the ancient Samaritans,
seemed at the same time to serve Christ and the
gods whom he had served before ; for in the same
temple he had an altar to sacrifice to Christ, and
another small one to offer victims to the devils."
Accordingly, when he became bretwalda or overlord
by the defeat of Ethelfrid of Xorthumbria, the cross
gained no victory. Redwald's sons, however, were of
a different stamp. The eldest, Regnhere, fell in battle
a devoted follower of the cross. St. Eorpwald the
Martyr, 1 another son, was a disciple of St. Paulinus
of York. He embraced the faith of Christ in the
court of Edwin of Northumbria, a king who owed
his crown to Redwald, and on returning home and
succeeding his father began the conversion of his
people with all the ardour of a neophyte. But a
pagan revolt stopped his work, and Eorpwald, stabbed
by a hired ruffian named Richbert, " poured out his
immaculate spirit to God " a Christian martyr.
.st. sigebcrt His half-brother St Sigebert next ascended the

the Learned,

A. P. fiso. throne. St. Sigebert was the apostle, the teacher, the

father of his people. During the three years' anarchy
which followed his brother's murder, he lived in exile
in Burgundy. There he received fuller instruction in
the Catholic faith at the feet of the then successor of
St. Germanus of Auxerre, and was baptized. With
the faith he drank in all the secular knowledge which

1 Also spelt Earpwald and Eorpemvcdd. See Butler's ' ' Lives of
the Saints," Oct. 4. Between Redwald and Eorpwald Matthew of
Westminster places Wibert. See his list of early E. Anglian kings
and his manner of spelling their names (Bohn's edit. vol. i. p. 433).

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 11

the cloisters of Burgundy could provide. An accom-
plished scholar, a brave soldier, an earnest yet prudent
son of the Church, Sigebert, succeeded to the crown,
thoroughly fitted for the work of converting and
civilizing his kingdom.

He commenced his reign by inviting St. Felix, whom ^
he had met in Burgundy, to preach the faith to his An8]ia-
subjects. l Felix received episcopal consecration from
St. Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and fixed
his see at Dunwich, 2 then a place of great importance.
With his aid the work of conversion advanced with
rapid strides. Sigebert was even enabled with teachers
from Canterbury to establish the schools on the Cam
which Henry III. afterwards raised to the dignity of
a university.

1 St. Felix, O.S.B., the apostle of East Anglia, landed at
Babingley in Norfolk about A.D. 630, where he is said to have built
his first church. Thoke, the great lord of these parts when St.
Felix came to convert the East Angles, embraced Christianity
and built the second church at Shernborne, and dedicated it
to SS. Peter and Paul. Of Babingley succeeding ages made St.
Felix the patron. The memory of St. Felix and his mission still
lingers about East Anglia. On the mountains of the Christian
Hills he is said to have preached. Flitcham, the ham or dwelling
of Felix, Flixton, Felixstow, Felixston, and many other places in
Norfolk and Suffolk were named after him, their first bishop.
His feast is kept by the English Benedictines on March 8.
See Montalembert's " Moines d'Occident," vol. iv. chap. iii. ;
also " Historia Eliensis," published by the Anglia Christiana
Society.

2 Dunwich was a place of importance among the Komans, and
immense quantities of bronze antiquities belonging to that people
have been and are still washed out of the cliffs by the ever
encroaching sea. At the time of St. Felix it was thoroughly
fortified, but not strong enough to resist the inroads of the ocean,
and now ships can float over the site once occupied by the city.
The royal forest, which extended for miles south-east of the town,
has been quite submerged ; and so the episcopal city, for 270 years
crowded with hospitals, monasteries and churches, is now only
a fishing village with a population of 250 souls.

12 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

st. Fursey. Especially to this holy and learned king East
England owed its monasticism. He welcomed to
his realm the Irish monk St. Fursey and his com-
panions, l and built for them to the glory of God,
under the invocation of the Apostles SS. Peter and
Paul, the monastery and church of Cnobbersburg. 2
Venerable Bede describes this h'rst monastery of
East Anglia as standing on the summit of a hill
overlooking on three sides the dark forests of the
interior and on the fourth the broad expanse of
water formed by the junction of the Waveney and
Yare. On this Mount Thabor, the Irish monks tarried
awhile, it is said, at the command of an angel. To
join in their chant or holy conversation, St. Sigebert
would often steal away from the gaiety of the court.
He delighted to sit, a privileged disciple, at the feet
of Abbot Fursey and listen to his narrative of visions
as sublime and awful as those which Dante has

1 St. Fursey was the son of an Irish king and abbot of an Irish
monastery. With his brothers Ultan and St. Foilan, and the
Irish priests Gobban and Dicuil, he left Ireland and established
monastic life in East Anglia, where he adopted tho Benedictine
rule of his bishop, as well as the Roman observance of Easter.
His fervent preaching and heroic virtues did much to convert the
people and to strengthen them in the faith. In fact, Baronius
("Annals," viii. 313) attributes the conversion of East Angli.-i
chiefly to these Irish saints. It is recorded that St. Fursey
established various double monasteries (Mabillon, "Acta SS.,"
vol. ii). Afer twelve years' sojourn in East Anglia, leaving St.
Foilan to govern the monasteries he had founded there, St. Fursey
followed his other brother Ultan to France, where he built the
great monastery of Latiniac near Paris. As vicar general he
governed the diocese of Paris for many years, and died at Froheins
(Fursei Damns), in the diocese of Amiens, while superintending
the building of Peronne Abbey. His feast is kept in the north of
France on Jan. 16. See Montalembert's "Monks of the West,"
and Cardinal Moran's " Irish Saints in Great Britain."

2 Cnobbersburg, formerly a Roman camp, now Burgh Castle, or,
according to some, Blythburgh.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 13

immortalized. For St. Fursey had been caught up into
heaven and seen " the choirs of angels, and heard the
praises which they sing ; " endowed with angelic
vision, he had looked down upon the earth and
watched the struggle of good and evil in the world ;
his miraculously gifted eyes had pierced the dark
abyss and gazed into " the fire which burns those
whose works and desires have been evil ; " the record-
ing angel's book even had been opened to him, and
in it he had read the judgments of the Son of God
on men. Touched by the burning words of this man
of God, the king resolved to resign his kingdom and
spend the rest of his life in contemplation of the
world to come. For this purpose he built a monastery
in honour of the ever Virgin Mother of God on a
certain gentle slope looking towards the east, and
washed by the little streams Linnet and Larke, — a
hallowed spot, destined in after days to be the resting
place of St. Edmund's body and the site of his vast
and magnificent abbey-shrine. Here King Sigebert
sought his long-wished-for solitude ; here he unbuckled
his sword, put off his royal insignia, and donned the
black monastic cowl ; his crown he laid upon the altar
wearing in its place round his shaven head a simple
rim of hair, to remind him of his Saviour's diadem
of thorns and of the imperishable crown laid up for
him by the just Judge. Then he took his place in
the lowest stall in the monastic choir, the first of the
long list of Anglo-Saxon princes who forsook the
palace for the cloister. Short had been his reign, but
great his work. Everywhere he left memorials of
his practical wisdom and goodness. Under his rule
pagan and barbarian East Anglia passed away ; in
its place arose a Christian commonwealth with bishops,
priests and faithful people, and churches, monasteries
and schools.

14 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYR.

Sigebert was not allowed, however, to breathe his

last in the retirement of the sanctuary. A terrible

enemy of the cross threatened his kingdom and his

work in the person of Penda, king of Mercia, a sworn

champion of the old heathen worship. Penda would

permit no Christian teacher to enter his dominions with

impunity, and, if a neighbouring prince received the

faith of Christ, he considered it as a challenge of his

policy and a declaration of war. Accordingly, when

Edwin of Nortlmmbria embraced the faith, Penda

attacked him and slew him in the fight of Hatfield

Chase. The progress of the faith now brought this

upholder of paganism into East Anglia at the head

of an army of Mercians and Britons. Egric, the

successor of St. Sigebert, prepared to take the field

against him, but his soldiers, mindful of the courage

and experience of their former sovereign, dragged

Sigebert from his cell and put him at their head. The

saint, faithful to his profession, refused to unsheath

the sword or wield the battle-axe, and he entered the

battle-field with no weapon save a small wand. Thus

armed, he was slain with King Egric at the head of

the Christian army.

King st. Annas, St. Annas, son of Eni, Bedwalcl's brother, at once

A.n. 040.

took up the reins of government. He worthily filled
the throne of St. Eorpwald and St. Sigebert, endea-
vouring with Bishop Felix and Abbot Fursey to
consolidate what his predecessors had begun. In spite
of nineteen years of almost perpetual war with Penda,
Annas succeeded in raising fresh monasteries, em-
bellishing the old ones with more stately buildings
and enriching all with valuable treasures of books
and vestments. Annas' influence spread beyond his
own kingdom : his court became the refuge of Penda's
victims, and there princes like Coinwalch, king of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 15

Wessex, flying from the Mercian tyrant's vengeance,
received the faith of Christ,

From around St. Annas' throne shines out a galaxy
of saintly children. l His queen, the holy Hereswide,
sister of St. Hilda, the celebrated abbess of Whitby,
bore him St. Sexberga, who, married to Erconbert of
Kent, became the mother of St. Ermenhilda and St.
Earcongota, and the grandmother of St. Werberga, the
patroness of Chester. St. Ethelberga, 2 abbess of Fare-
moutier, 3 and St. Etheldreda, the foundress of Ely, were
the first and third daughters of St. Annas. Both are

St. Annas=St. Hereswide (sister of St Hilda).

St. Ethelberga, St. Sexberga, St. Etheldreda, St. Withberga, Aldulph, Sethrida,
the Incorrupt, queen of Krconbert or Audry, the the Incorrupt, king of East abbess of
abbess of Fare- of Kent,foundressof Incorrupt, married of Ely, foun- Anglia A.D.6C8- Faremou-
moutier iu Slieppy & 2nd to Earl Tombert 4 dress & abbess 713. tier.

France. abbess o

f Ely. then to King Egfrid of Derelmin in
of Northumbria, Norfolk,
foundress of Ely, A.D. 679.

St. Ermenhilda,
queen of Mercia,
3rd abbesa of Ely.
1

St. Earcongota.

St. Ethelberga and
Withberga, abbesses of al)

Edberga,
bess of Repton,
1 afterwards of
ickness, a friend
of St.Guthlac.

1 1 iiacKness, a lounaauon an
St. Werberga, Ceonred, of St. Hilda, their great-uuut. H
abbess of Weedon, king A. D. 704,
patroness of Chester. monk at Rome
A.D. 709.

Some authors (compare Butler, April 30, Wharton's " Hist. Epis.
Lond.," Capgrave, April 30, and Leland's "Itinerary," vol. viii.
p. 72.) make St. Annas the father of St. Erconwald, the founder
of Chertsey Abbey and bishop of London, and of St. Ethelberga,
his sister, the first abbess of Barking. The confusion arises from
not distinguishing St. Ethelberga daughter of St. Annas from
St. Ethelberga sister of St. Erconwald. Erconwald and his sister
were children of Offa, king of the East Saxons, sometimes
incorrectly called East Anglia, or the country of the East Angles,
even by ancient authors.

2 Called in French St. Aubierge. St. Bede styles her the
natural daughter of St. Annas, which in his time had not the
present meaning, but was used in opposition to his adopted child,
Sethrida, of whom St. Bede is also speaking. Montalembert
seems to have forgotten this fact.

3 Founded by St. Fara, A.D. 616. There being few abbeys in
England at this period, many noble virgins entered the monas-
teries in Gaul, especially Faremoutier, Chelles and Andelys.

16 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

celebrated for their unblemished chastity, and their
bodies remained incorrupt after death, the one in
England and the other in France. St. Withberga, the
youngest virgin -daughter of this extraordinarily holy
family, founded Dereham in Norfolk, over which she
presided as abbess for many years. Aldulph, Annas'
only son, showed himself little inferior in holiness to
his devout sisters. The worthy father of three abbesses,
his contemporaries recognised in him the virtues of
a truly Christian prince.

St. Annas closed an honourable reign by a martyr's
death. With his brother, St. Firminus, l he fell in a
last struggle with the heathen Penda (A.D. 654), and his
subjects buried him in the priory, now an ivy-covered
ruin, at Blythburgh. His tomb is still pointed out in
the north aisle of the neighbouring church of Broad.
Ktheihere. Etlielliere, the successor of Annas, for a moment

broke the tradition of loyalty to the cross and holiness
of life so remarkable in the royal line of East Anglia.
He made a league with Penda, and fell in battle
with him and thirty other royal princes on the field
of Winwoed, near Leeds. In that battle King Oswy
terribly avenged the death of his brother, St. Oswald,
and the death of St. Sigebert, St. Annas, Edwin and
Egric, all kings sacrificed to the pagan gods by the
Mercian sword. 2 After the fall of Ethelhere his
brother Ethelward reigned nine years. Ethelward

Ethel ward. J

saw the old heathenism pass away for ever, and left
the throne to King Aldulph, when the triumph of
the cross was complete.

1 St. Firminus, whose shrine together with that of St. Botulph
stood attendant on the shrine of St. Edmund, was a brother of
St. Annas, and not a son, as some state.
- "At the Win wed was avenged the slaughter of Annas,
The slaughter of the kings Sigebert and Egric,
The slaughter of the kings Oswald and Edwin."

Henry of Huntingdon (Bohn's edition, p. 57).

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 17

Few rulers in Saxon times stand out more gloriously Kin
from among the Christian kings of their age than
Aldulph. In his childhood he had seen the broken idols
which once stood side by side with the Christian altar,
but after his nineteen years of vigorous rule no vestige
of Woden or Thor existed in the land. Over the dust
and ruins of crumbled paganism he raised innumerable
churches and religious houses. Ely Abbey especially
owed some of its splendours to him. He directed the
workmen in the building of that stateliest monastery
of his realm, and, when the minster was reared, he
welcomed to its cloisters his sister St. Etheldreda.
On another solemn occasion the old chroniclers picture
him at the abbey gates in company with King
Wulphere of Mercia, King Egbright of Kent and a
crowd of noble followers, taking part in the dedication
to God's service of his niece St. Werberga. So well
known were Aldulph's piety and devotion to the Church,
that the prelates of the time elected to meet in council
in his territory rather than in any other. According to
some writers, St. Theodore of Canterbury held his
famous synod for the canonical organization of the Eng-
lish Church, not at Hertford, but at Aldulph's royal city
of Thetford. l At that important council, Bisus, then
bishop of the Angles, took his rank first after the arch-
bishop. Among other business St. Theodore's synod
divided East Anglia into two sees, fixing the second
at North Elmham, and leaving the aged Bisus to preside
over the older see of Dunwich. 2 Aldulph, after seeing

1 See Blomefield's "History of Thetford," p. 24, where the
question is discussed.

2 The early bishops of East Anglia. — The first episcopal
see for the kingdom of East Anglia was placed at Dunwich in
Suffolk on the consecration of

ST. FELIX, the first bishop about A.D. 630.
THOMAS, who had served as deacon to St. Felix, succeeded in 653.
Malmesbury writes of him ex Girviorum provincia oriundus.

18 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

his kingdom politically and ecclesiastically organised,

passed to his reward. Of his two immediate successors,

Eifwoidand Elfwold and Bernred, the scanty records of the time

Bernred. J

give little more than the names. The next king, the
Etheired. good and virtuous Ethelred, is principally remarkable
for his long and peaceful reign of fifty years (A.D. 748).
His son, St. Ethelbert the Martyr, succeeded.
st. Ethelbert Medieval chroniclers bestow unstinted praise upon
792. ' ' the young and accomplished Ethelbert, a king amiable

in disposition, handsome in countenance, graceful in
body, prudent in mind. As a child this holy prince
loved the monks' chant in choir more than the games
of boyhood ; unlike other sons of kings, he delighted
not in the glitter and dissipation of the court, but pre-
ferred to minister to the sick and feeble, to relieve
the poor with alms, to retire and converse with God
and His saints in prayer. In him as a sovereign,
mercy and justice met. One saying of his especially
reveals the secret of his amiable character. "The
higher our rank," he would remind his attendants,
" the more gentle and lowly should be our bearing."
No wonder this pious disposition led him to prefer
a life of perpetual chastity. His wise men, however,
hoped by his marriage to secure an heir to the throne
and thus preserve the tranquillity of the kingdom.
Accordingly, at their entreaty, in the forty-fourth year
of his reign, Ethelbert set out for the court of Off a
of Mercia to seek the hand of that sovereign's daughter
Alfrida. 1 On arriving with his retinue on the frontiers

BONIFACE, the next bishop, died in 669. He is called Bertgus
in Cott. MS. Vesp. B. 6, and Beortgils in MS. Tiber B. 5.

Bisus, Bisi, or BOSA was the next bishop. About the year 673,
as stated in the text, his diocese was divided into two, at
the national council held by Archbishop Theodore at Hert-
ford. One see continued at Dunwich, the other was fixed at
North Elmham in Norfolk.

1 Called also Etheldreda.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 19

of Mercia, he sent before him presents and letters to
announce the object of his visit. Offa received his
overtures with favour, invited the East Anglian prince
to the palace of Sutton Wallis, four miles from
the present city of Hereford, and there entertained
him with great show of pomp and ceremony. The
day's rejoicing over, attendants conducted the royal
guest to his bed-chamber, but not to rest. As he
knelt in prayer commending himself to his heavenly
Father's keeping, Wimbert, a court official, summoned
him to a conference with Offa. While the unsus-
pecting stranger made his way through the dungeon-
like passages of the castle to his host's presence, a
band of hired assassins suddenly rushed out and
stabbed him to death. At the news of their sovereign's
murder, horror and dismay seized upon his attendants
They mounted their horses and fled. Offa on his side
pretended to bewail his royal brother's death, but his
immediate seizure of Ethelbert's kingdom branded
him with the crime. On him and his God avenged
the death of His saint. Offa died within two years,
and the torrent of the river Ouse at Bedford, in a
strange and unaccountable rising, unearthed and swept
away his corpse ; his sons died without issue ; his
daughters became widows and beggars ; and his queen,
at whose door history chiefly lays the murder of
Ethelbert, met a most miserable death three months
after her crime. A few years after St. Ethelbert's
martyrdom, the race of Offa had passed away for ever,
and East Anglia, which he had so forcibly possessed,
became the tomb of each successive Mercian sovereign
who claimed dominion over it.

At first the faithful secretly buried St. Ethelbert's The sin-ine of
body not far from the scene of his martyrdom, in the
village of Harden, on the river Lugg, where a miracu-
lous well still marks its first resting-place. Later on,

20 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYH.

as the saint's tomb became famous for the number
of cures wrought at it, the clergy and faithful trans-
lated the sacred body to a church at Fernby, or Fern
Heath, which in course of time developed into the
cathedral of Hereford.

Offa Meanwhile the East Anglians, at first scattered and

disorganised, quickly rallied again, and chose for their
leader a prince of the royal line named Offa, a name-
sake of their Mercian persecutor. This Offa was the
immediate predecessor of St. .Edmund.

King Edmund. Such is the noble .and illustrious line of kings who
lead up to St. Edmund. As his ancestors and pre-
decessors, they form a brilliant background to the
royal martyr, who stands out among them as the
most striking figure in the picture. For St. Edmund
embodies in himself all the characteristics of the East
Anglian dynasty : like Uffa and liedwald, he was a
fearless warrior ; like St. Sigebert, a patron of learning
and of the Church ; like St. Annas, a defender of his
kingdom and subjects; like St. Ethelberga, St. Ethel-
dreda, and St. Withberga, a lover of virginity ; like
St. Eorpwald and St. Ethelbert, a martyr. The ancient
antiphon composed in his honour saluted him as king,
warrior of Christ, white lily of virginity, red rose of
martyrdom. "Hail, king of the Angles," it ran, "soldier
of the King of angels, Edmund, the flower of martyrs,
resembling both the rose and the lily, pray to the Lord
for the salvation of the faithful."

CHAPTER II.

Saint Edmund's Parentage and Birth.

\Aitthorlties— Gaufridus de Foiitibus' " De Infantia Sti. Edinundi " holds the
lirst and foremost place among the authorities for the events of this
chapter. A loth ceiituvy copy of this work exists in Bibl. Pub. Cantab.,
Ff. 1.27, § '29, p. 628-624, which Thomas Arnold, M.A., has recently edited for
the Master of the Ro Is in his " Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey," vol. i.
Hardy conjectures that Gaufridus was identical with Godefridus de Foiitibus,
a Franciscan friar and guardian of a convent of his order in Paris, who
died Bishop of Cambrai in 1238. This, however, is impossible, since
Gaufridus dedicates his work to the noble Lord Abbot Ording, who ruled
St. Edinundsbury from 1148 to 115(3, thirty years before St. Francis of
Assisium was born. According to Arnold, he " belonged to the house of
regular canons in the patronage of St. Edmund at Thetford." More probably
he was a monk of St. Edinundsbury, afterwards bishop of Ely, the same who
graced by his presence the translation of St. Frideswide, Feb. 12, 1180. From
the prologue of his work, the reader gathers that he often revisited his former
brethren, and, \\hen the conversation turned on St. Edmund, he gave them
the fruit of his researches. At last, urged by Prior Sihtric and Sub-Prior
Gocelin, who met him at Thetford, he committed to writing what he had
heard (qiKeilani ab aliis mihi tratlita), and what he had read fqucedam viva
lectione cogiiita), dedicating his work to Abbot Ording, whose obedient servant
he calls himself. His MS., treating of the parentage, birth, and early life of
St. Edmund, is valuable, because he had access to records and genealogies
long since lost. With Tanner's " Biblioth. Britan.," p. 304, compare Battely's
" Antiquitates Sti. Edmundi Burgis," p. 76. The next important and most
complete narrative extant of St. Edmund's life is the " Vita et Passio S.
Edmundi Regis et Martyris una cum miraeulis ejusdem," MS. B"dl. 240,
If. 024-077 veil folio XIV. cent., a compilation from all the chronicles, histories
and legends of the saint then in existence and within reach. At intervals, in
the margin of this MS., the compiler refers to the following authorities :
Henry of Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham, St. Abbo, Gaufridus, Nicholas
Prior of Wallingford, the chronicles of Westminster, Ely, and Norwich,
Samson Abbas, Hermannus, and Osbert de Clare. After the life, the early
incidents of which are word for word from Gaufiidus, follow the narrative of
Abbot Baldwin's translation of the saint's body, and then the. earliest and
latest records of St. Edmund's miracles. The whole MS., though called a
compendium, tills 53 folio pages of small and closely written matter, and, if
put into modern type, would fill a handsome volume. Another ancient
" Vita S. Edmundi Regis et Martyris," MS. Cott. Tiber E 1. f. 2S3b suffered
so materially in the fire of 1731 as to be now unreadable. Capgrave, however,
has preserved it in his " Nova Legenda Angliie," f. 107, and a copy of it
exists in the Bodleian library, MS. Tanner 15. The introduction of this
" Vita" is taken from Gaufridus de Foiitibus ; the other part from Herman's
narrative, ending with the erection of St. Edmund's Church in Canute's time.
From the MSS. in his abbey library. John Lydgate, the monk-poet of St.
Edinundsbury, wrote in verse the " Life and Acts of St. Edmund the King
and Martyr," a poem varying in different MSS. from 300 stanzas of seven
lilies <ach to twice that number. Lydgate, by far the most famous versifier
of the lotli century, according to Prof. Craik (" English Literature and
Language," p. 175), was born (A.D. 13SO) in the village of Lydgate, from which
he takes his name. After studying in the university of Paris and tra veiling
in Italy, he returned to his abbey, intimately acquainted with the literature
of the countries through which he had passed, and stored with the learning
of his age. After his return to his monastery, he spent the rest of his life,
like St. Bede, in teaching and studying. A master of the English tongue, he
rivalled Chaucer, whose disciple he was", in the smoothness of his verse.

22 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

His wit, says Cainden, the very muses formed and modelled. Craik con-
siders him a mercenary rhymester, because he received one hundred shillings
from Abbot Whethamstede for putting into English verse the Latin legend
of St. Alban, as if payment, then as now, did not rather commend a poet
than condemn him. The same professor calls attention to Lydgate's diffuse-
ness, but it is hard to agree with him that the monk-poet possessed very
little strength or originality of imagination. Gillingwater in his History
of Bury mentions some of Lydgate's poems, and Ritson gives a list of about
two hundred and fifty of them. Several have been printed at various times ;
among others his nine books of tragedies translated from a Latin work of
Boccaccio's and printed at London in the reign of Henry VIII. A selection
of Lydgate's minor poems, edited by Mr. Halliwell. was printed by the Percy
Society (London, 1840). Lydgate wrote the poem of St. Edmund's life, as he
himself tells us, "Whan the Sixte Henry in his estat royal, with his sceptre
of Yngelond and of ffraunce held at Bury his feeste principal of Crystemasse."
"The Abbot William," he continues, "gaff me chaarge to doon my attendaunce,
the noble stoory to translate in substaunce out of Latin." There are extant
as many as nine original MSS. of Lydgate's beautiful poem. None have yet
been printed. M.S. Harl. 2278, presented to Henry VI. on his visiting
Bury, and ornamented with 120 limnings, is considered one of the richest
illuminated manuscripts in the world (see a description of it in vol. ii. of
the Harleian Catalogue, pp. 639-649). MS. Ashmole 463 was dedicated and
presented to Edward IV. Most of the MSS. of Lydgate's " Life and Acts of
St. Edmund" not only vary in length, but differ verbally. The MSS. used
here are Harl. 4826, for the copying of which the author is indebted to a
London friend, and Harl. 2278. Though richly imaginative in his descriptions,
Lydgate is a valuable authority on St. Edmund. He had at hand in his
abbey library the most authentic lives and traditions of the saint, and he
used them " folwying myn auetonrs in e'ery manere thing, as in substaunce
folwyng the letter in dede." For further remarks of Lydgate's poems on St.
Edmund see chapters x. and xii. ; see also chapter xii. for an account of
" La vie Seint Edmund le Rey," a life in French verse by Denis Piramus, a
courtier of Henry III., which has much in common with Lydgate's].

THE last chapter sketched the history of a brave
and saintly dynasty, no less remarkable in our
annals for its martyr and virgin spirit than for its
bold and haughty blood. This chapter will treat of
the descent and birth of St. Edmund, the last of that
noble East Anglian line.
The country of Old Saxony, not the Saxony of the present day,

St. Edmund's .

birth- claims to be the country of St. Edmund's birth. At

the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth
century, the period of our saint's early history, Old
Saxony comprised the district which lies between the
Ems and the Elbe, and stretches from Cologne to the
northernmost part of Schleswig-Holstein. Its connec-
tion with the early English kingdoms is a well known
fact of history. The kindred races of the two countries
were in frequent communication with each other. In
the time of St. Boniface, of St. Willibrord and of the
parents of St. Edmund, whole colonies of English
passed over from Britain to Old Saxony, and the
Saxons in their turn constantly sent their sons to be

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 23

brought up in England. It is not surprising, then,
that the East Anglian nobles on the murder of St.
Ethelbert looked to Old Saxony as to an easy and
convenient refuge. At first they hoped to rally
again in their own land, but Offa pursued them in
their flight from Sutton Wallis, overtook them as
they crossed the plains of Ely, and annexed their
country, as he had previously annexed Kent and
Wessex. They never submitted, however, to the
Mercian tyranny, choosing rather a few months'
voluntary exile among friendly kinsmen in Saxony. l

The whole event brought them in contact with Charlemagne
Charlemagne. Their land of exile, in fact, fills an Old Saxony'
important page in the annals of the great Frankish
emperor's reign. The Saxons had invaded and ravaged
the imperial dominions over and over again. At last,
after their attack on the Rhine Provinces, during his
campaign against the Saracens, Charlemagne finally
conquered them. Later on, in the year 782, when
they revolted, he forced their king Witikind and his
chief followers to become Christians as the sole con-
dition of peace. Although from that time Witikind
and his subjects remained faithful to their religion
and firm in their allegiance, other Saxon bands, during
a space of thirty-three years, continually made war,
and were as frequently vanquished. Charlemagne
had just succeeded in crushing one of these rebellions
at the time of St. Ethelbert's murder, and the two
events conspired to bring him into connection with the
East Anglian nobles. In him they found a powerful
and willing protector. With open arms the great ciiariemagne

and England.

emperor received any English prince whom the
rapacity of Offa of Mercia drove to his court. ^Perhaps

1 See " Annales Ecclesiastic! et Civiles Britanuoruni, Saxonum,
Anglorum, &c.," R. P. Michaelis Alford (alias Griffith), vol iii.,
anno 841.

24 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

the influence of Alcuin, the famous English scholar
from Bede's school at Jarrow, made him ready to open
his palace-gates to his favourite's compatriots ; more
likely, fear of a neighbouring rival power and a secret
wish to add England to his empire induced him to
offer hospitality to the enemies of Mercia. In any
case, Offa's victims invariably fled to Charlemagne's
court for protection. Thither came Eardulph of
Northumbria after his vain contest for the crown with
Ethelred, the husband of one of Offa's daughters.
Egbert, the claimant of the throne of Wessex, driven
from his kingdom by another son-in-law of Offa's,
likewise sought an asylum in the Frankish emperor's
dominions. Kent also appealed to Charlemagne against
Offa's invasion and tyranny ; lastly, the East Anglian
princes and thanes received a welcome from him. The
emperor was particularly kind to his English exiles.
He advanced them to posts of trust in his empire ; he
pushed their claims, and materially assisted them in
their war of independence ; and he trained their youth
in the art of war and educated them in his palace-
school.
Charlemagne Among those thus brought into contact with

anil St. f

r>th"unds Charlemagne through the seizure of East Anglia by
the Mercians, were two cousins in whose veins flowed
the royal blood of the Uffings. One of these, Offa, the
namesake of Offa of Mercia, the exiles elected to
succeed St. Ethelbert; the other, named Alcmund,
Divine Providence destined one day to become the
father of St. Edmund. Alcmund, though an exile and
stranger in a foreign land, could thus claim a near
relationship with the reigning house of East Anglia.
Lydgate" styles him the "cousin," other chroniclers
the " consanguineus," the blood relation, and "cognatus,"
the near kinsman, of Offa of East Anglia. Besides his
royal blood Alcmund possessed qualities of mind and

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MABTVR. 25

body of no ordinary character. As a mere boy lie
distinguished himself among the English on the
continent, and while still a youth Charlemagne thought
him fit to govern part of his new conquest of Saxony. l

The Protestant Dean Battely (followed by Arnold) asserts
that the parentage of St. Edmund is all a myth — the make-up of
one Florentius, abbot of the church of St. Adalbert in " Egmunda,"
who in the year 1296 came on an embassy to England and visited
the place in which lay the body or relics of St. Edmund the Martyr,
once king of the Angles. This devout abbot wished very much to
get some clue to the genealogy and acts of St. Adalbert and of
his brothers in the flesh, and so among other works he searched
into the chronicles of the kings of England, and in them he found
it recorded that Adalbert (Ethelbert) had reigned over the Angles
thirty-seven years and seven months before his brother Edmund
obtained the kingdom. The two brothers had a sister named
Brictiva, who was buried at Frankenwoerde. Their father's name
was Alcmund, a prince of noble and ancient Saxon stock. Behold
Alcmund the father of St. Edmund. — So far Battely.

It is answered : First, the facts connected with the parentage
of St. Edmund are given, not on the authority of Florentius, but
of Gaufridus, who wrote at least a hundred years before Abbot
Florentius visited St. Edmm-dsbury. With abundant materials
at hand, Gaufridus compiled the historical fragment a copy of
which has survived to our own day. Now there is nothing positive
to refute his evidence. To say that he drew upon his imagination
for his facts is a rash and unwarrantable assertion. He mentions
the sources from which he drew, viz. the records and traditions of
the time. And, if the sixteenth century vandalism destroyed the
sources, that is no reason for holding that they did not exist.
Moreover, as the text shows, his facts accord with the events and
customs of the age as related in other annals, and also with what-
ever traditional or written history of East Anglia exists, scanty
though it be. Secondly, Abbot Florentius made the grave mistake
of confusing St. Edmund's brother, Adalbert, with St. Ethelbert.
From that mistake follows a host of blunders. For instance, St.
Ethelbert became the son of Alcmund. He was in fact the son of
King Ethelred of East Anglia. Adalbert became a king and a
martyr, and both Adalbert and Edmund were made to live in the
eighth century instead of in the middle of the ninth. Florentius
blundered, but it is hard to see how that militates against
Gaufridus' facts. See, however, t he chronicle of John Wallingford,
Gale's "Hist. Brit., Saxon. Scriptores, xv." vol. iii. p. 534.

26 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The character of Alcmund was not altogether unworthy of the trust

King Alcmund. J

reposed in him. Some of the old St. Edmundsbury
registers style him saint, and one chronicle at least
calls him Alcmund the great. l Noble in birth, hand-
some in person, manly in his bearing ; in battle
courageous, in council prudent ; above all, blameless
in his private life and with the fear of God ever before
his eyes, — thus the chroniclers paint the father of St.
Edmund. Kingship he regarded but as a nearer and
more responsible service of the King of kings ; he
looked upon himself only as the minister of God
distributing His justice and mercy and proclaiming
His laws. From the example no less than from the
teaching of so saintly a father, his sons learnt to
realize that higher sovereignty than the highest on
earth, the sovereignty of Him who maketh kings and
casteth them down, in whose sight the earthly sceptre
and crown are of no avail when He chooses to put down
the mighty from their seat and to exalt the humble.
Charlemagne recognized the worth of such a man, and
therefore, says the poet, Alcmund was " set in a chair
of kingly dignity."

Siwara was Alcmund's queen. If the tree is known
st!eEdmund°f by its fruit, then all that ancient writers say of
Siwara only faintly depicts her admirable qualities.
She was "meek as Esther," sings the old monk-poet,
and " fair as Judith." Of a strong yet winning
character, exceedingly fair, yet matronly and dignified,,
she added to these queenly virtues more than the
ordinary kindness and gentleness of womanhood, being
ever full of tenderest pity for the afflicted, and
making it her delight to feed and clothe the poor,
arid to comfort the sick and sorrow-laden. 2

1 See Leland, and Bodl. MS. 240, which spell his name Ulkmund.

2 Dean Battely has started another theory with regard to-
Siwara. The Life of St. Botulph, he says, mentions a certain

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYtt. 27

Siwara bore King Alcmund three sous and one The children of

Alcmund and

daughter. l Cerne Abbey in Dorsetshire perpetuated siwara.
the memory of the eldest son, St. Edwold. 2 Edwold
came to England with his brother Edmund, and
remained in East Anglia for some years. After the
martyrdom of Edmund, the popular voice elected
him to fill the vacant throne, which he refused.
Fearing compulsion, he fled and hid himself in the
valley of the Cerne. There beside the silver fountain
known as St. Augustine's well, secluded from the rest
of the world by the lofty chalk hills surrounding
his hermitage, he gave himself up to a life of austerity
and prayer. One 28th of November, he passed away
to the other world. Soon after his death, the fame
of miracles wrought by his intercession attracted
pilgrims from all parts of England to his grave. The
devotion of the faithful translated his body to a
rich shrine, over which they raised the noble abbey
of Our Lady, St. Peter, and St. Benedict, of whose
former glories the present ancient gateway alone
remains. 3

St. Adalbert, or Elbert, 4 the third son of Alcmund
and Siwara, is best known in connection with the
Benedictine abbey of Cormin in Holland, where his
body rested for many centuries after his death. Of

Ethelraund, king of the South Saxons, whose mother's name was
Siwara. The monkish historians, he continues, writing the
legend of St. Edmund, make Siwara, the mother of Ethelmund,
mother of St. Edmund. "John Wallingford," concludes Battely,
"confirms my suspicions." The theory is ingenious but im-
probable.

1 See Leland's " Collectanea," vol. i. p. 245, and vol. ii.
p. 219, and Harpsfeld, p. 174. Capgrave speaks of St. Edmui d
as an only child. Gaufridus mentions two sons, of whom Edmund
was natu posterior.

- Also spelt Ewold and Ewald.

3 See Leland's "Itinerary." vol. viii. p. 71.

4 Ibid. See also Mabillon's " Acta Sanctorum," steel, iii. toni. i.
p. 645.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYI?.

St. Edmund
the child of
promise

Alcmund's
]>ilgrimage to
Rome.

his sister Wilgena little more than the name is
recorded. l

St. Edmund was Alcmund and Siwara's second son
and their child of promise. His birth, like Isaac's
in the Old Testament, and St. John the Baptist's in
the New, was announced by an angel. Miraculous
signs similar to those related in the lives of St.
Dominic, St. Columbanus, St. Thomas of Canterbury,
and other saints appeared at his birth, as if to mark
his future greatness. He was in a special way the
fruit of prayer. Alcmund often besought God to
grant him a numerous and saintly family. In answer
to his prayer, an angel from heaven admonished him
to undertake a pilgrimage to the tombs of the
Apostles, 2 for there God would reward his devotion
and grant his petition. 3

Then, as now, every pious Catholic desired to visit
Rome, that city hallowed by so many sacred memories,
which St. Cyprian apostrophised as " the mother and
mistress, the root and foundation, of all the Churches
of the universe." Thither, as to a new Jerusalem, the
Mount Sion of Christendom, the newly converted
kings and nations flocked to offer their homage and
allegiance to Christ's Vicar, the father and teacher
of all the faithful. At this time more than thirty
English kings had made the pilgrimage to the tombs
of the Apostles, and many, like Ina of Wessex and
Coinred of Mercia, put off the crown and abdicated
the throne in order to spend a life of prayer and
good works within the precincts of the eternal city.
Joyfully, then, in obedience to the angel's voice,
Alcmund set out to visit the churches of Rome.

1 If she were the same as Brictiva, her burial-place was
Frankenwoerde.

- " Ad limina apostolorum," writes Gaufridus.
3 Bodl. 240.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 29

Apparently, while in the holy city, he did not lodge
in the English school or home of hospitality which
Tna founded and supported with the first Peter-pence.
In visiting the centre of Christendom to study the
pure Catholic faith at its very source, English kings
and princes, as well as bishops, priests, thanes, and
freemen, usually stayed in Ina's hospice. But
Alcmund scarcely belonged to England ; he therefore
sought a lodging elsewhere, and became the guest of
a Eoman widow of wealth and high patrician rank.
This lady, after her husband's death, devoted her life
to works of piety. One day, while conversing with
Alcmund, she noticed on his breast a brilliant sun, A brilliant sun

. • n i shines on his

whose rays, darting towards the tour points or the breast,
compass, threw a miraculous light on all around.
Moved by the vision, and filled with the spirit of
prophecy, Alcmund's pious hostess declared that from
him should arise a child whose fame, like to the
eastern sun, should illumine tbe four quarters of the
world, and whose example should spread God's glory
everywhere, and enkindle in the hearts of men greater
love of Christ. 1 After this, Alcmund did not tarry
long in Rome. The object of his pilgrimage seemed
already attained, and he prepared at once to return
to his kingdom.

On arriving in Saxony after his long absence,
Alcmund made his way to Northemberg, or North 0.

J St. Edmund

Hamburg, 2 a city pleasantly situated at the mouth of ^0™ifemburK,

A.D. 841.

1 The second nocturn lessons of St. Columbanus' office relate a
similar wonder: "Columbanus, natione Hibernus, jam inde ab
utero matris qure illogravida solem radientem sibi in quiete gestare
visa est, futuram claritatem prresignavit."

2 Leland gives Norembregis, Dugdale Nuremburg, Curteys'
Register and the Douai MS. Northemberges, Lydgate North-
emberge, Camden Norinberg. It is hard to say for certain what
city is meant unless the present Hamburg. Nuremberg is not in
Old Saxony ; Norden in Friesland, and Nordenham on the Weser are

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

His English
descent.

The name
Edmund.

The saint's

religious

training.

the Elbe, and claiming Charlemagne as its founder.
The northern Genoa, and later on the rival of Venice,
Northemberg held the first place among the towns and
cities of Old Saxony. Alcmund made it the capital
of his kingdom, and there, some months after his return
from Rome about the end of the year 841, Siwara gave
birth to St. Edmund.

On his mother's side Edmund descended from the
ancient Saxon kings of the continent : " Ex antiquorum
Saxonum nobili prosapia oriundus," — "from the noble
stock of the ancient Saxons he sprang," writes his prin-
cipal biographer. Through his father he inherited the
blood royal of East Anglia, whose people St. Abbo
calls his " comprovinciales," "fellow-countrymen" In
after years his subjects loved to remember that the
martyr king belonged to their own race ; and our
Catholic forefathers made it their loudest boast
that the great Edmund was an Englishman.

The child thus nobly descended received in baptism
the name of Edmund. His biographers see in this
name a token of the saint's character and virtues. Ed,
they remark, signifies blessed, and mund, dean ; one
part of his name foreshadowed his pure and innocent
life here on earth, and the other his blessed one with
God in heaven. Had or Ed, says another author, means
liappy, or, if derived from the Saxon cath, easy, gentle
mild, and mund signifies peace ; so Edmund is happy,
gentle, peace — a name most suitable to one who
willingly sacrificed his life for the peace and happiness
of his subjects.

From Edmund's earliest years his parents trained

not important enough. Alcmund's capital, says Battely, quoting
from a codex MS. in his time in possession of Stillingfleet, bishop
of Worcester, was a most celebrated city. North Hamburg, or
Hamburg, as given in the text, alone answers in every respect to
what is recorded of Alcmund's capital.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 31

him in the Catholic and Eoman faith. : In that faith
St. Augustine, St. Paulinus, and St. Felix had in-
structed his ancestors, and in it generations of his
people lived and died. Alcraund first learnt it at
his mother's knee, then in the court of Charlemagne,
finally perfecting it in Rome itself. Both the traditions
of his house, therefore, and the education of his father
secured Edmund's being brought up in the true faith.
To complete his teaching, Alcmund often spoke of
his pilgrimage to Eome, of the sacred places he then
visited, and of the sovereign pontiff, Christ's Vicar,
with whom he had conversed. On his father's knee,
or seated at his feet, the boy Edmund listened with
eager attention to the history of those renowned
Churches whose saints had prayed for him before his
birth. Doubtless from his father's lips he heard the
legend of St. Ambrose and the emperor more powerful
than Charlemagne, who humbly and reverently accepted
the holy bishop's reproof. The youthful saint often
heard tell of the terrible invasion of Attila, and of how
Pope Leo checked the barbarians in their headlong
course. As he listened with earnest childlike interest
to these stories of the saints, there were planted deep in
his soul a love and reverence for the Church and her
pastors, a courage and boldness against force and rapine,
which bore abundant fruit in after years. Edmund
took special delight in the stories of the Christian
soldier St. Sebastian and of the brave boy St. Paucra-
tius, both of whom he afterwards so closely resembled.
No wonder that, as he pictured to himself the amphi-
theatre, and contrasted the fierceness of the wild beasts
and of the maddened spectators with the placid bearing
of the martyrs, his whole soul glowed with the desire

1 "A primaeva fetate cultor veracissimoe fidei." — MS. Harl. 2802
f. 226.

32 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

to fight and conquer in the cause of God and truth. In
fact, so enthusiastically did he admire the heroic deeds
of the martyrs, that he affirmed not long before his
death that from childhood his wish had been to die
for Christ.
His mother's TO his mother's influence he owed that purer and

influence.

and deeper sense which gave calm and wisdom to his
earnestness. Through her care, his soul, while it lost
none of its fire and resoluteness, grew in gentleness
and prudence. In other words, she taught him to
realize that which sobers yet elevates the wildest
natures — the supernatural though invisible world
around us. She trained his broad and noble mind
by showing him how to live in the greatness and vast-
riess of the other world, and to view the circumstances
of life with the light of eternity upon them. Not only
at morn or eve did she bid him lisp his infant prayers,
but through the day often speak with the angels and
saints and converse with the Virgin Mother and her
divine Son. One devotion especially Edmund imbibed
with his mother's milk — his love for the holy name of
Jesus. In his childhood that name was ever on his
tongue ; in his youth he repeated it as the name of his
dearest master and friend ; with that name on his lips
he gave up his soul to God. This love for the holy
name affected the whole conduct of his life. "From
his earliest youth," writes St. Abbo, "he followed Christ
with his whole heart " — " a primevo juventntis tempore,
Christum toto secutus est pectore."1 So, "day by day,"
sings the monk -poet, " by the grace of Christ, as he
waxed in age he always increased in virtue," "demure in
port," " angelic of visage," " comely to behold." As : —

" Ifro freesh lied sprynges renne streemys crystallyne,
So yong Edmund, pleynly to declare,
Shewyd how he cam from Alkmond and Siware. "

1 Office of St. Edmund, MS. Bodl. Digby 109.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 33

Alcmund had seen the value of learning in the The saint's

education.

palace-school which Charlemagne instituted for the
education of the young princes of his court. When he
became a ruler himself, he therefore gave a ready
welcome to his court to all scholars. He surrounded
his sons with competent teachers, so that at an early
age prince Edmund learned to read, a rare accomplish-
ment in those days. Alcmund had him also instructed
in the Latin tongue, and, while still in Saxony, the child-
saint began to learn by heart the psalter of David, l a
study which he completed after his arrival in England.
Beyond this little is known of St. Edmund's child-
hood, till he reached the age of twelve. He was then
a golden-haired, blue-eyed Saxon boy, tall for his age,
graceful and cheerful, and prudent beyond his years.
Thus formed and gifted, Providence drew him forth,
like his divine Saviour, from the obscurity of his early
days. But the event which changed the whole course
of his life and started a new epoch in his history
may appropriately begin a fresh chapter.

1 " Psalterium quod in Saxonia cocperat," writes Gaufridus.

CHAPTER III.

King Offa of East Anglia — St. Edmund succeeds him —
St. Edmund is anointed and crowned.

[Authorities— Gaufridus de Fontibus, the Bodleian MS., and other authorities
referred to at the beginning of the last chapter, still continue to be useful.
St. Adamnan, " De Locis Sanctis," (Migne's Patrologia, vol. 88) is the
great authority on the Holy Lind at this period. St. Bede quotes St. Adamnan's
Diary in his" Ecclesiastical History," bk. v. e. xv., as valuable and reliable.
On the Holy Places at this period see also Ijingard's " History and Antiquities of
the Anglo-Saxon Church," vol. ii. chap. x. 1st edition. The description of
St. Edmund's coronation is principally drawn from the ancient English
pontifical of Archbishop Egbert of York (A.D. 745), printed by the Surtees
Society, vol. 27, the preface to which gives a learned disquisition on the
Anglo-Saxon pontificals. To Egbert's pontifical Dom Edmund Martene refers
in his " De Antiquis Ecclesiiie Hit.," torn iii. ordo 1 ;ind ordo 2. It is certainly
"the most ancient ordo ad benedicendum regein" known, and was in use in St.
Edmund's time. For any side remarks on the customs of the Church at this
age, see Martene and Lingard in the works mentioned above, and Dr. Rock in
his " Church of Our Fathers"]

King offa, the ALTHOUGH East Anglia fell a prey to the tyranny and

predecessor of

st. Edmund. rapine of the Mercian nobles after the martyrdom of
St. Ethelbert, it remained a short time only in their
hands.1 The East Anglians soon combined for resist-
ance. Taking advantage of the misfortunes which befell
the royal house of Mercia, and supported by the
Emperor Charlemagne, the exiles returned to England
and started a war of independence. The young and
valiant Prince Offa, whom they had chosen (A.D. 793)
to succeed their late sovereign, headed them in this
glorious struggle for freedom. Our best known chroni-
clers mention this famous king of East Anglia, without,
however, giving his name. 2 Their omission is supplied

1 See John Brompton, " Chron.," p. 748 quoted by Battely, p. 11,
" Historiae Anglicanse Scriptores, x." (Gale).

2 Butler, the Little Bollandists and others, confuse Offa of Essex

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYIl. 35

by the biographers of St. Edmund. Gaufridus writes
that the king who reigned sixty-one years before St.
Edmund, rivalling in this respect our Henry III. and
George III., was named Offa. After this statement, he
proceeds to warn his readers against confusing Offa of
East Anglia " with that Offa king of the Mercians who
iniquitously beguiled and slew Blessed Ethelbert, or
with that other noble Offa, the illustrious king of the
East Saxons, who, out of love of Christ and the
kingdom of the gospel, left wife and children and
country to go on a pilgrimage to Rome, there to receive
from Pope Constantino the tonsure and monastic habit,
and whence, after death, he reached the vision of the
blessed Apostles in heaven."

As a ruler and warrior Offa of East Anglia was in no The reign of

King Otta.

way inferior to other kings of his royal line. Gaufridus
calls him "justitire cultor et pacis amator," "a respecter
of justice and a lover of peace" He began his reign
with the support of the Emperor Charlemagne. Charle-
magne had previously despatched Egbert from his court
to be king of Wessex, and Eardulph to sit once more
on the throne of Northumbria. l He now lent his
powerful aid to Offa and the thanes of East Anglia, to
enable them to throw off for ever the Mercian su-
premacy. Once in possession of his country, king Offa
took up both sword and sceptre with a firm hand. In
<819, he engaged in battle with Cenulf, the only
sovereign since the murderer of St. Ethelbert who
wielded the Mercian sword with any effect. Victory
•crowned his arms, and he left Cenulf and the flower of
his army dead upon the field. Five years afterwards,
the threatening attitude of Mercia sent him and his

with the predecessor of St. Edmund, although he died ninety
years before his namesake became king of East Anglia, and a
hundred and forty before St. Edmund's birth.

1 See Green's "Short History of the English People," p. 41.

36 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

wise men to the court of their once fellow-exile, Egbert
of Wessex. l As a result of this interview Offa per-
suaded Egbert of the mutual advantage of an alliance
against Mercia. The two kings at once carried war
into the heart of Mercia ; they fought side by side in
the battle of Ellandune on the banks of the Willy,
where they utterly defeated the forces of Bernulf, the
successor of Cenulf. When Bernulf attempted later on
to wreak his vengeance on East Anglia, Offa and his
men met him on the frontiers of their kingdom, and
single-handed routed his army, and slew him and five
of his dukes. Ludecan, the successor of Bernulf,. con-
tinued the contest, and likewise fell by the sword of
Offa, the third victim whom God seemed to require for
the blood of His servant Ethelbert. Towards the end
of his reign a more formidable enemy challenged King
Offa in the form of a party of Danes, who, entering his
kingdom from the Lincolnshire fens (A.D. 838), en-
deavoured to push their way to the Thames. The king
boldly attacked them, and, though they effected their
design, it was only, says Ethel werd, after great slaughter
had been made of them in East Anglia.
offa seeks an Defensive warfare did not prevent Offa from devot-

heir to his •

throne. ing himselt to the more peaceful work 01 government.

All his reforms, however, were likely to fall to the
ground, unless he could leave a successor firm and
unflinching as himself to continue his work. He
knew well from the history of Xorthumbria, how rival
claimants to the throne desolate and lay waste the
fairest kingdoms. Yet he had no heir. His son by
Queen Botilda, the saintly Fremund, 2 had renounced

1 See Ethehverd's "Chronicle," A.D. 824-825, etc., and Lingard
on the reign of Egbert.

2 St. Fremund, according to Capgrave, was the son of Offa of
East Anglia, and Lydgate in Ashmole MS. 46 f. 54, writes : "To
Kin" Otla Fremund was son and heir, reigning in Northland

SAINT EDMUND) KING AND MARTYR. 37

the kingly dignity for a hermit's life. Offa looked
around in vain for some one who should take his place,
and whose rule would be universally acknowledged.
His anxiety for the future increased on learning that
the Norsemen swarmed the high seas in greater num-
bers, and were actually plundering the mainland of the
south. Meanwhile the infirmities of age crept silently
but quickly upon him. In his trouble and distress this He resolves on

l' r a pilgrimage to

valiant prince, as renowned for piety as for prowess Jer»salei11-
and kingly wisdom, whom God had raised up to avenge
the death of his saints, often lifted up his hands in
prayer to heaven for guidance and direction. At last,
under a sudden inspiration from heaven, he resolved
to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem " to adore in the
place where the feet of the Lord had stood." l God, he
argued, would not be deaf to prayers offered up in
those holy places which the life, labours, and death of
His Son had sanctified.

The aged king took advantage of his pilgrimage to And visits

"~ Saxony on

visit his cousin Alcmund, whose counsel he judged MS way.
would assist him in prosecuting his arduous journey. 2

[Norfolk], the story beareth witness. His mother, Botild, right
goodly and right fair." Lydgate, quoted by Yates, is made to say
that Botild was St. Edmund's sister. According to Harpsfeld
quoted by Cressy, p. 739, Fremund was son of Count Algar of
Essex by his wife Thova, and so brother to the unfortunate
wretch Leofstan, who irreverently opened the coffin of St. Edmund,
and was in consequence struck with madness and disease. Leland
("Itinerary," vol. viii. p. 72), in making Erconwald, bishop of
London and Ethelberga, his sister, the offspring of Offa king of
East Anglia, confuses Offa of the East Saxons, who died A.D. 708,
with Offa of the East Angles, who died in 854. The East Saxons
were quite distinct from the East Angles, a fact not adverted to by
even our most reliable annalists. See the lessons of St. Ercon-
wald's feast in the Benedictine Breviary, the " Annales Benedic-
tini," vol. i. bk. xvi. p. 539, and Hardy's "Materials," vol i.
pt. 2, p. 522.

1 "In loco ubi steterunt pedes Domini adorare. " — Gaufridus.

2 " Cujus perutile didicerat fore consilium ad perficiendum illud
iter tarn arduum. "

38 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Old Saxony lay most conveniently in his route to the
Holy Land. Thence he could travel overland directly
and safely through Charlemagne's dominions to one of
the southern European ports, and thence take ship for
the east. He accordingly set sail with a goodly retinue
of knights and serving-men for the mouth of the Elbe.
He had^sent news of his coming before, and most of the
noblesse of Saxony assembled at Northemberg to give
him a royal welcome. l His ships anchored in the lakes
of Alster, and he and his suite disembarked to enjoy
the hospitality of King Alcmund.
He meets st. To wait as pages upon his royal guest, Alcmund

Edmund.

selected a certain number of the most illustrious youths
of Saxony, among them his two sons Edmund and Adal-
bert. All endeavoured to serve the venerable Offa
with readiness and fidelity, but Edmund especially
was always at his side willing to oblige and to please,
so that he made a great impression upon his aged
uncle. 2 Struck by the young saint's blithe and win-
ning manner, his heavenly countenance, his graceful
carriage, his sweet and modest speech,3 Offa applied
to him the words of Solomon : " Hast thou seen a man
swift in his work ? He shall stand before kings and
shall not be in obscurity." 4 The king saw in the
boy a virtue and discretion far beyond his tender years.
He remembered, too, Edmund's descent from the royal
line of the Uffings, and therefore his eligibleness to the
throne of East Angiia. Already the old king's prayers
seemed answered. Edmund possessed every princely
qualification of birth and heart and mind. What better
or more suitable successor could he have ?

1 " Utpote rex, et regis Saxonici cognatus."

2 Strictly speaking, Offa was St. Edmund's cousin, but on account
of his age and dignity he is often called St. Edmund's uncle.

3 MS. Harl. 2802 says of the youthful Edmund that "polleret
bonis moribus."

4 Prov. xxii. 29.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 39

So strongly did this idea grow upon him that, before Andadop's him

as his heir.

continuing his pilgrimage, Offa resolved to adopt
Edmund as his son and heir. According to William of
Croyland, * instances of similar adoptions were not
unusual. The Saxons frequently entrusted their sons
to the English to be educated, and very often in
the case of royal princes adopted children succeeded to
the throne. Accordingly, before bidding farewell to the The ceremony <>f

0 J ' adoption.

Saxon king and his noble retainers, Offa, whose heart
expanded with affection towards the youthful Edmund
resolved to publicly adopt him as his son. In the
presence of the whole court he pressed the boy to his
heart and kissed him; then, taking a ring, he placed it on
the lad's finger. " My most beloved son Edmund," he
said, " accept this memento of our kinship and mutual
love. Eemember me as one grateful for your service, in
reward for which with God's permission I hope to leave
you a paternal inheritance." Edmund received both gift
and promise with boyish glee. His father, however, who
understood the full meaning of the ceremony, seemed
taken by surprise. Pleased, however, with the favour
shown his boy, he quickly explained to him the nature
of the proposal, and formally asked his consent.
" Consider, Edmund," he said, " the offer of the East
Anglian king. Are you willing to accept him as your
father in my place ? Shall he provide for you as his
son, and you regard him as your father, so as in

1 Miserunt Anglis puerum Saxones alendum,
Qtti restauraret quod rapu6re patres,
Edmundus felix, &c.
Anglorumque puer fines habitavit Eoos
Ut consanguineus alumnus Oplise.
Et postea, Aff'ectans prodesse magis proeesse sepulti,
Supplendas patrui suscipit ille vices.

William of Croyland, quoted by Battely, p. 22.
See David Chytneus' " Saxonia " for a list of kings whom Old
Saxony gave to England.

40 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

future to live in my house another's son ? " Whatever
answer Edmund gave, and probably he submitted
wholly to his father's guidance, the words delighted
Offa, for he embraced the boy again, and covered his
oHa shows cheeks with kisses. Then, in the presence of his East

Kdmuml his

signet ring. Anglian thanes and of the whole Saxon court, he drew
from his finger his coronation ring, " to him most
special and entire." With that ring the holy successor
of St. Felix had wedded him to his kingdom.
With tears coursing down his furrowed cheeks, he
showed it to prince Edmund. " Son Edmund," he
said, " observe closely this ring, notice its design and
seal. If, when far away, I intimate to you by this
token my wish and desire, do you without delay
execute my order. As the noble crowd assembled
bears witness, I intend to regard you as my most
beloved son and heir."

The East Satisfied with the happy issue of his visit to Saxony.

Anglians rr,i j >

p?igrirnag^eir ^^a ma(^e his final preparations and started once more
on his journey. Crowds of spectators lined the streets
to see the royal pilgrimage set out. Alcmund and a
long procession of clergy and nobles devoutly accom-
panied it some way out of the city. Then the brother-
monarchs bade each other farewell, and parted never
to meet again on earth. Alcmund continued to guide
and direct his court and realm as in the past. Offa
proceeded towards the Great Sea, intending to take
ship at Genoa or Venice for the Holy Land.

St. Edmund's biographers say little of other incidents
in King Offa's pilgrimage. That his journey was slow
and perilous compared with what it is now-a-days
there can be no doubt. The roads were uncertain and
but rarely trodden. In spite of the vigilance of Charle-
magne and his successors, robbers infested the woods
and mountains. Thanks, however, to treaties and the
reverential protection afforded to pilgrims, rich and

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 41

poor, the East Anglian king and his followers reached
the Holy Land in safety.

St. Adamnan, the writer of St. Columba's life, has The Holy Land,

A.D. 853.

left a description of the holy places at this period, from
which it is easy to conjecture at what port the pilgrims
from England landed, what hallowed scenes they
visited, and in what sacred churches they prayed
during their sojourn in the most historic country of
the world. Landing at Joppa, the principal port of the
East, they set out without delay for Jerusalem. Of
the six gates of the holy city they entered by the
western, called David's gate. If it were about the 15th
of September, they perhaps saw the miraculous rain
which, according to tradition, the Great Creator made
to fall copiously at eventide to cleanse the city of his
beloved Son from the filth and refuse of the autumn
fair. The streets presented a strange and novel sight
to the visitors from the west. Camels and mules
thronged the gates ; men and women in flowing eastern
robes met them at every step. But the English
strangers hurried past the picturesquely dressed loiter-
ers, past the many stately buildings for which the city
was then renowned, towards the round church of the
Holy Sepulchre. In this church three walls and three

The church

ways, one encircling the other, enclosed the gold and 2f th,e ,Holy

Sepulchre

marble roof which rose over the tomb wherein the
body of the Lord reposed from its burial to its
resurrection. Twelve lamps in honour of the twelve
Apostles burned day and night in this temple of the
Anastasis. Two other royal and magnificent churches
adjoined. In the one called the Church of Golgotha,
Offa knelt before the great silver cross fixed in the
very rock which once held the wooden cross whereon
suffered the Saviour of mankind. Suspended aloft,
a great brazen wheel supported a circle of lamps,
which burned day and night around the sacred spot

42 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

The other church, called the Church of the Martyrdom,
stood over the spot where St. Helen the Empress dis-
covered the cross of the King of Martyrs. Offa and
his attendants kissed the sacred ground on which the
Saviour's cross lay buried for three hundred years ;
then, with other pilgrims, they turned aside to the
altar of the silver double-handled cup which our Lord
blessed with His own hands when He supped with His
Apostles the evening before He died. Within the
cup lay the sponge once saturated with the vinegar
and hyssop which our dying Saviour tasted. In the
portico of the basilica the English pilgrims were
privileged to gaze upon the spear which opened their
Redeemer's heart, and to view the linen cloth on which
Christ our Lord's head reposed in the sepulchre. This
linen cloth the Jews once stole. When the Christians
claimed it back, the Saracen judge, in order to end the
dispute, commanded his men to throw the sacred relic
into a fire especially kindled to consume it. But the
fire harmed not the precious cloth, and the Christians
in solemn procession triumphantly carried back their
treasure to its shrine. The pilgrims venerated one
other relic before they left Constantino's churches, —
the linen winding-sheet which enclosed the Virgin
Mother's body after her death, and which the Apostles
found in the empty tomb after her assumption into
heaven.

On leaving Jerusalem, devotion led the pilgrims to

The valley of

Josaphat. the church over the tomb of our Lady in the valley
of Josaphat. Beside that tomb stood the sepulchre
of Simeon, the prophet who held in his arms the " Light
for the revelation of the Gentiles." Again, not far off
they saw the tomb of St. Joseph, our Lord's guardian
and foster-father. Crossing the valley of Josaphat,
Offa repaired to Mount Olivet, on which at this time
stood two churches. One marked the scene of Jesus'

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 43

agony ; the other, on the summit, the spot whence He
ascended into heaven. The print of Christ our Lord's
last footsteps on earth, protected by a railing of bur-
nished brass, remained visible in the centre of the
second church. Above, the roof, left open to the sky,
revealed as it were the very spot through which, on the
day of His Ascension, our King of Glory, drawing aside
the curtain of heaven, entered into His kingdom. From
the Mount of Olives the pilgrims passed on to Bethania
to see the tomb of Lazarus ; then they turned towards
Bethlehem, a little village perched on the brow of a
grassy hill with a green valley all around. In Beth- Betiiieiipm.
lehem they venerated the spot where " the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt amongst us ; " there they saw,
adorned with gold and precious stones, the manger of
the Infant Jesus, which the faithful afterwards re-
moved to Rome. In the neighbourhood of Bethlehem
guides pointed out the tombs of the four patriarchs'
and of Rachel, David and St. Jerome. From Jerusalem
and Bethlehem the pilgrim descended into the valley
of the Dead Sea, and, passing through Jericho, made
his way to Galilee, breaking the journey at Jacob's

J Galilee.

well and Samaria. Nor did King Offa and his suite
pass by unnoticed the village where our Lord met
the ten lepers, or the gates of Nairn, where He raised
the widow's son to life. Thus they arrived at Nazareth,
nestling quietly and peacefully in its verdant bowl-
shaped valley. Two churches graced the modest town.
One canopied the cottage in which the angel Gabriel an-
nounced the Incarnation to the Virgin Mother; the other
the house in which the boy Jesus grew up to manhood.
From Nazareth Offa and his knights visited the woods
and flowery heights of Thabor. Passing through the
thick and beautiful verdure that covered its sides, they
reached the three churches on its summit, the three
tabernacles, as it were, which Peter would have built to

44 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

his Lord, to Moses and to Elias. From the monastery-
tower on the top of Thabor, the travellers gazed out
over the sea of Galilee, on the margin of whose shores
at irregular intervals they beheld the historic towns
of Tiberias, Magdala, Bethsaida, and Capharnaum. Far
beyond the sea they caught a glimpse of the desert
where the Son of God fed the multitudes, — touching
image of the most wonderful of His sacraments. A
journey of seven or eight clays through higher Galilee,
by the sources of the Jordan, and through the cedar
groves of Mount Libanus, brought the party to the
plain of Damascus. There they contemplated the
scene of the great Apostle's conversion ; in imagination
they saw the bright light and heard the divine voice
which changed Saul the Zealot's heart. Passing
through the delightful gardens, which stretched all
around, they entered into Damascus, the capital of
Syria. A week within its walls ended their pilgrimage.
But travellers to the Holy Land thought their

rhe return by »

Constantinople. journey incomplete unless they venerated the true
cross, which at that time the walls of Constantinople
guarded. In embarking, therefore, at Joppa to return
home, King Offa resolved to visit the city of Constan-
tinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire. A fifteen
days' voyage first brought him and his suite to
Alexandria, but, leaving that city and its cathedral
with its empty shrine of St. Mark unvisited, they
sailed at once for Crete, and thence to Constantinople-

iiiness ami death Either before or after paying his devotions to the
true cross, Offa fell sick. The storms and trials of
eighty winters had whitened his beard and bent his
once stately form. The fatigue of his pilgrimage had
told upon a constitution already weakened by age
and by the mental and bodily troubles of a long reign.
Offa well knew that his twofold pilgrimage was drawing
to a close. A holy calm, however, possessed the aged

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 45

monarch. His last great act of piety and religion had
gained him an heir worthy of his throne, and destined
to be the greatest glory of his kingdom. Edmund, the
reward of a pilgrimage to Rome, God now gave to East
Anglia in reward of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

As Offa sailed through the Hellespont, the scenery
drew his thoughts more than ever to his own land.
Dark and luxuriant foliage fringed the shores, the
trees dipped their evergreen branches into the clear
waters. Through similar scenes had he glided on those
rivers of England, whose streams flow swiftly towards
the ocean — similes of his own transitory life making
quickly for eternity. He grew seriously worse as the
vessel neared the celebrated monastery and church
dedicated to St. George which at that time crowned
the heights overlooking the Hellespont or Dardanelles
Without delay, under the shadow of the monastery
which gave the name of " Brachium Sancti Georgii,"
or " St. George's arm," to the neighbouring waters, 1
King Offa confessed his sins for the last time, and
received the Holy Housel and the solemn anointing.

As the hour drew nigh when he was to leave this Hi? la-s^ ,"iessar1'

to St. Edmund.

world, the dying king summoned his followers to his
bedside. His earthly career, he knew, was drawing to
a close. He wished to confer with them before he died
on the peace of his country and the succession to
the crown. " You know," he said, " what dissen-
sions rival ambition and greed for power bring upon
a nation. It behoves us to consult for our kingdom,
in order to avoid this diabolical snare, and establish
a government of peace and justice. To prevent all
rivalry in your choice of a king, I name as my

1 Petits Bollandistes, torn. iv. 23 avril ; Butler, April 23. Roger
of Hovedon, Rolls Publ., vol iii. p. 47, says, "Et alter Brachium
Sancti Georgii — quod est apud civitatem Constantinopolim." In
the Glossary "Brachium St. Georgii" is interpreted Archipelago-

46 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

successor one whom you know, Prince Edmund, the
son of my cousin the king of Saxony. God has given
him grace of body and wisdom of mind worthy of a
throne. High and low will love and favour him as
one able to rule firmly and well." Thereupon he
handed them his signet ring, bidding them take it to
Saxony as a sign and token of his will.

Kneeling round the bed of their dying sovereign,
the East Anglian knights solemnly promised to deliver
the ring to Edmund, and with it the message of their
lord. So Offa's soul passed away in peace. Tearfully,
and with what dirge and requiem they could procure
in a strange land, his thanes laid him to rest on the
shores of that Hellespont which Xerxes had crossed by
his bridge of boats, and at whose mouth the ruins of
ancient Troy mournfully stood sentinel. l Then, turn-
ing sorrowfully away from the grave, they hastened
back to Saxony to greet their new sovereign.
.st Edmund (^n reaching the court of Alcmund of Saxony, the

turone'Vnlast East Anglian nobles announced the sad news of Offa's
death. At the same time they presented the royal
signet ring to Prince Edmund, and urged his speedy
departure for England. Edmund's father, however,
hesitated. He considered his son of too tender an age
to undertake the onerous duties of a kingdom. He was
unwilling, moreover, to give up so suddenly Ids own and
Siwara's favourite child. At the same time, fearing to
act against the providence of God, which evidently
pointed to a high and noble destiny for his son, he
withdrew to his chamber to meditate and pray over
the matter, as well as to mourn the death of his royal
cousin. Meanwhile he summoned the bishops and the

1 The events of Offa's life may be dated thus : Birth about A.D.
770 ; election to the kingdom of East Anglia, A.D. 793 ; defeat of
Cenulf of Mercia, A.D. 819; conference with King Egbert, A.D.
824 ; visit to Saxony and adoption of St. Edmund, A.D. 853 ;
death in St. George's Bay, A.D. 854.

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAIITYR. 47

wise men of Saxony to meet him at Xorthemberg.
Patting before them the last will and testament of the
late king of England and the request of the East
Anglian deputation, he asked their advice as to the
course which he should pursue. They answered with one
accord that Edmund should go to East England, there
to be crowned as "born next in the kingly line," for
clearly God's finger pointed thither, and against God's
will "may be no resistance nor counsel which may
avail."1 "He ordaineth by marvellous ways the
palm of princes and the crowning of kings." Alcmund
now remembered the Roman widow's prophecy that the
lustre of Edmund's virtues, like the rays of the sun,
should spread from the east to the west. Recognising
God's will in all that had occurred, Alcmund at last
acceded to the request of the East Anglian embassy.

It now remained for the royal father to take all st. Edmund's

expedition to

necessary precautions for his son's safety and well- England.
being in the country of his adoption. He therefore
assigned to the young prince a force numerous and
powerful enough to support his claim to the throne,
should it be called in question. For Edmund's body-
guard he added to the retinue of the late king several
thanes all notable in his realm for wisdom and chivalry.
Not satisfied with this, Alcmund determined to select
for his son a counsellor who by his age and prudence
would worthily take his own place. He possessed in
his kingdom at the time a noble named Sigentius,2
remarkable for his integrity of life and knowledge of
men. He was experienced in the use of arms, and,
though advanced in years, endowed with that calmness
and cheerfulness of disposition which quickly win the
respect and affection of youth. This knight Alcmund

1 Prov. xxi. 30.

2 Alford gives a deed of gift made by St. Edmund to Sigentius
in the year of the saint's landing in East Anglia.

48 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

made Edmund's chief guardian. The young prince's
retinue further consisted of priests and clerics to offer
up the daily mass, to chant the divine office, and to
instruct him in all holy doctrine. Lastly, Alcmund
assigned his son all such household attendants as
became his rank. In fact, he omitted nothing that
Edmund's dignity required or his claims demanded. l

Before the expedition set sail, the child of God knelt
down upon the ground to receive his father's and mother's
blessing. Then he embarked, and the ship weighed
anchor. A sorrow which no words can describe affected
the whole land at his departure, for all had learned to
love the bright and guileless Edmund. His mother
especially bewailed his loss. Of her the poet sings : "A
tender mother's love will out ; tears and weeping are
tokens of her heart's bitterness ; " as Siwara kissed her
brave and noble boy, " salt tears bedewed all her face,"
and " no word could she utter for pain and bitterness of
parting." She watched the vessels sail down the river,,
disconsolate, and gazed out upon the sea, till the fleet
dwindled to a speck on the horizon.

He lands at St. Edmund sailed for the eastern coast of England.

The voyage was neither long nor dangerous. The
English and Saxons were, then as now, expert seamen ;
and frequent intercourse made them fully acquainted
with the shoals, sandbanks, and other perils of the
neighbouring seas. On this occasion, however, they
needed neither skilful navigation nor knowledge of the
high seas. Wind and weather favoured, and St.
Edmund in the autumn of 855 reached the land where
two royal crowns awaited him.

The fleet touched at the north-east point of the
Norfolk coast, where a cliff sixty feet high and a
mile in length juts out into the sea. This cliff, now

1 Speed (fol. 329) says that Alcmund maintained his son's election
and sent him with a power to claim the kingdom. See Alford also.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 49

called St. Edmund's Head or Point, shelters on its west
a wide and beautiful bay, from whose shores the
amber-coloured buildings of modern Hunstanton look
out smilingly upon the sea. No more suitable spot
presented itself for St. Edmund to land his forces, and
•on this part of the East Anglian coast the young prince
put ashore. l About an arrow's flight from the place of
landing the expedition crossed the dry bed of a river
which had once flowed into the sea. Beyond lay a
wide and barren plain. Here, at the very entrance of
his kingdom, the youthful stranger prostrated on the
ground and prayed God to bless his coming and make
it profitable to the land and its people. From that
hour the soil round about proved the virtue of the
saint's prayer. Sandy and sterile before, henceforth it
bore the richest crops in all East England. As the
saint rose and mounted his horse, twelve springs 2 of
sweet and crystal water gushed forth from the earth as

1 "St. Edmund," says Camden, "being adopted by Oft'a to be
heir of the kingdom of the East Angles, landed with a great
retinue from Germany in some part not far from St. Edmund's
•Cape, called Maidenboure. But which it should be, is not so
certain : Heacham is too little and obscure ; nor does Burkham
seem large enough to receive such a navy upon that occasion,
though it must be confessed that their ships in those days were
but small. Lynn seems to lay the best claim to it, both as the
most eminent port, and because that is really Maidcn-boure, St.
Margaret the Virgin or Maiden being as it were the tutelary saint
of that place." ("Brit.," p. 470). A better explanation which
Camden might have brought forward in support of Lynn's claim
occurs in MS. Bodl. 240 f. 674, where mention is made of a chapel
of St. Edmund at Lynn, and of miracles wrought therein by the
intercession of the saint ; but Gaufridus de Fontibus, with whose
work Camden was probably unacquainted, leaves no doubt about
Hunstanton being the place of St. Edmund's landing.

2 Gaufridus says twelve springs ; Lydgate says five ; Capgrave
"Nova Legenda Anglia3," fol. cvii., merely states, that a fountain
sprang up, curing many infirmities. The springs are now called
the Seven Springs.

50 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

tokens of God's favour. " These springs," adds Gaufri-
dus, " to this our own day excite the admiration of the
beholder, flowing as they do with a continuous sweet
and cheering murmur to the sea. Many sick," he
continues, " wash in these fountains and are restored to
their former health, and pilgrims carry the healing water
to remote parts for the infirm and others to drink."
Memorials of st. The whole neighbourhood of Hunstanton is still full

Edmund at

Hunstanton. Of memories of that landing. After his coronation he
founded the royal town or fortress of Honestones-dun,
or the town of the hoiiey-stones, so called from the
colour of the stone of which he built it, or, according to
an old chronicle, from the character of his followers
who first dwelt there. For, as honey signifies sweetness
and stone hardness, so Edmund's followers were notable
for two qualities — gentleness in time of peace, and
manly courage in time of war : — " in peace like lambs,
in war like lions." On the promontory overlooking
the bay and still called after him, Edmund built a
palace, a favourite and frequent residence of his. From
its founder it took the name of Maidenburie — the abode
of the maiden — " maiden " signifying in old English a
chaste, pure, unmarried person of either sex,1 and
" burie," from the Saxon bur, an inner chamber or
place of shade and retirement. What a flood of light
this name sheds over the character of the chaste and
youthful king, who chose this place of retirement and
meditation by the clear and boundless ocean, which
symbolised to him the Divine eternity and immensity,
in the light of which he viewed all the events
of life. The piety of the faithful in after ages

1 "Maidenhood is both in men and women. Those have right
maidenhood, who from childhood continue in chastity. They
shall have from God a hundredfold meed in life everlasting." —
Aelfric's "Homilies," quoted by Lingard in his "Antiquities of
the Anglo-Saxon Church," vol. ii. p. 11, 2nd edition.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 51

turned the royal residence of Maidenburie into a chapel,
the ruins of which, called St. Edmund's chapel, are
visible to the present day, close by the lighthouse
which crowns the cliff. St. Edmund's springs are
situate about a quarter of a mile from the ancient and
beautiful church of St. Mary in Old Hunstanton. In
Catholic times the devout clients of St. Edmund flocked
to their crystal waters, as pilgrims journeyed to St.
Winefrid's Well on the western side of the isle. Now,
however, the holy wells of Hunstanton belong to the
forgotten past. Farmers, indeed, for miles round send
their water-carts to be filled at them, and one of the
springs supplies the new town with its sparkling water ;
but, though marvellous cures are said to be wrought at
them, few recognise their miraculous power, and only
now and then does a solitary pilgrim linger over the
spot, and recall to memory the stranger prince who
knelt there to pray for his country.

After landing his forces, Edmund proceeded to Attle- st. Edmund
borough, a city founded by the Saxon prince Atheling, Stieborough.
from whom it derives its name. At this period the
East Anglians regarded Attleborough as the capital of
Norfolk. Under Offa it was the chief royal residence
and the centre of government. Edmund in taking
possession of it thus unmistakably asserted his claim
to the throne, and proclaimed the object of his
expedition.

A few weeks later the young prince visited the court He is present

of Ethelwulph, king of Wessex, probably in order to wufph

Nov. 5, A.D. 855.

get that monarch s support to his claim. 1 While in
Wessex, he attended the great meeting which Ethel-
wulph called together on November 5, A.D. 855, to con-
firm his famous charter of immunities to Holy Church.
Before the high altar of the cathedral of St. Peter at

Ingulph (Bohn's edition, p. 35). See also Roger of Wen-
over, and Lingard's " Anglo-Saxon Church,'' vol. i. p. 247.

52 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

Winchester, the highest magnates of the realm affixed
their signatures to a charter in honour of the glorious
Virgin Mary, of the blessed Apostles and of all the
saints," in order to solicit the protection of God, through
the psalms and holy sacrifices of religious men and
women, against the repeated descents of the northern
pirates in those times of alarm and peril." The solemn
and magnificent assembly which thus bore witness in
the presence of God to the king's generous gift to the
Church comprised the chief bishops, abbots, abbesses,
earldormen, thanes and lieges of the land. Conspicuous
among them, on the steps of their father's throne, stood
Ethelwulph's sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred and
the boy Alfred, each destined to hold in turn the royal
sceptre. Edmund stood side by side with the king of
Mercia. Together these royal princes form an historic
group ; all will become famous within the next fifteen
years for their valiant struggle with the savage Danish
,, hordes. The two youngest, Edmund and Alfred, especi-

Alfrerl the Great.

ally command attention. Both by their wise govern-
ment and brave resistance to the pagan invader merit
the title of Great. Edmund fell a martyr in the
struggle ; his death gave new life to the cause for
which he died, and his name became the rallying cry
of the Christian English against the heathen Dane.
Alfred, now a boy of seven years, who looked up
wistfully into the handsome princely face of East
Anglia's greatest glory, history knows as a victorious
conqueror. He reaped the fruit of Edmund's martyr-
dom. The fatality which hung over the invaders of
St. Edmund's kingdom delivered Goth run, a comrade
of Hinguar and Hubba's, l into his hands, and ended
the struggle, for some years at least, in favour of the
English. Gothrun's defeat marked still more clearly

1 Hinguar, Hnbba and Gothrnn were three of the sea-kings who
ought against St. Edmund.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTY it; 53

the triumph of Edmund's principles. Through the
martyr's prayers not less than Alfred's persuasion,
Gothrun embraced the faith of Christ. After baptism
he ascended St. Edmund's throne, and in his person
and in the Christian spirit of his government the cause
of his martyred predecessor finally triumphed.

On Edmund's return to Attleborough the nobles and The North POIU
people of Norfolk, with Humbert, bishop of Elmham, Edmund uTtift!
at their head, formally acknowledged his sovereignty.
This took place on Christmas day, 855. To quote
Asser, " in the year of Our Lord's Incarnation, 855,
Edmund, the most glorious king of the East Angles,
began to reign on the birthday of Our Lord, in the 14th
year of his age." But Edmund's authority did not
extend much beyond the neighbourhood of Attle-
borough. According to the custom of the English of
that day, a prince had to deserve well of the people
before they freely and unanimously elected him king.
Edmund, who respected the traditions of his country-
men, made no attempt to force his sovereignty upon
them. He awaited God's time, remaining quietly in
Norfolk for a whole year.

He spent that period in retreat and meditation. He In retreat lu)
now learnt by heart the psalter of David, the subject psalter of David,
of his study in Saxony. The fact of his committing the
psalter to memory was not extraordinary, for chroni-
clers mention similar instances in the lives of other
ancient saints. St. Erideswide, for example, when
quite a child, proved " so apt a pupil that in five or
seven months she learnt by heart the whole of David's
psalter ; " and, indeed, what richer poetry could be given
to a child, or what prayers more sublime to a Christian?
The psalms are no mere human invention, but varied
and soul-stirring aspirations, inspired by God Himself.
Once learnt by heart, in days when books were scarce,
they supplied the place of written prayers. They

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The East
Anglians
hesitate to
elect Edmund.

The Cbnrch
takes up his
cause.

comforted the aged in their loneliness. They relieved
the monotony and gloom of the blind or dim of sight.
They enabled the devout to join in the monastic choir.
To a St. Bede or an Alcuin their verses, full of expres-
sions of every feeling of joy, of gratitude, of fear
of God's judgments, of trust in God's mercy, were a
source of cheerfulness and consolation in hours of pain
and languor. St. Edmund had a special reason for
learning the psalter. He knew no higher example of
kingly virtue than David, "the man according to
God's own heart." But David's great soul lay hidden
in his poetry, which Edmund therefore studied, in
order to form himself on the model of Israel's
famous king and prophet. Afterwards his biogra-
phers pronounced him Deo acceptus, — a man accept-
able to God. They beheld as the motive power of
his life the principles and piety of king David,
which, during the first year of his reign, he had
learnt under the tutorship of Bishop Humbert from
the book of psalms. l

Hitherto the South Folk of East Anglia had withheld
their allegiance. The kingship in East England
being elective rather than hereditary, they considered
themselves free to choose any prince to rule over them,
provided the royal blood flowed in his veins. Edmund,
indeed, had a prior right from nearness of kin. He
could also point to the will of the late sovereign.
Other aspirants, however, better fitted by age to com-
mand, started up to contest the throne, and defer the
final election.

But in spite of his tender years something in St.
Edmund plainly betokened the ruler. Hence, the

1 " Historia Eliensis " (Anglia Christiana Soc. Publ., p. 79).
"The psalter used by the saint was religiously preserved by the
monks of Bury-St. -Edmund 'p, and it is said to be still in St. James'
Church library of that town." — Butler, Nov. 20.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Church took up his cause. St. Humbert, who had
received the young prince on his landing at Hunstan-
ton, still filled the episcopal chair of Elmham. l He
now threw all his power and influence on the side of
the young claimant, and a bishop's authority in the
days of the heptarchy was of no little importance even
in secular affairs. In virtue of his office, the nation
regarded him as the king's spiritual father and chief
adviser. His word like the king's did not require
the confirmation of an oath. Xobles and people de-
ferred to his superior wisdom and piety in every trial and
feud. He attended the principal courts of justice. As
the expounder of the civil law, he sat with the earldor-
man in the shire-mote. As the upholder of God's law,
he often stepped in between litigants whom no earthly
power could have reconciled. In East Anglia St.
Humbert held the position which bishops and arch-
bishops held in the other English kingdoms. From

1 The Bishops of East Anglia
continued from page 17 : —

Bishops of Dunwich.
ETTA, AECCE, Ecci, or
HETA, consecrated in 673.

ASTWOLPH, AESAWLF, or

ASTULFUS.
EADFKRTH, EALDBERCHT,

EARDRKD, or EDRED.

CUTHWINE.

ALBERTH, or ALDBERHT.

ECGLAF.

HEARDRED, or HENDRED.

AELFHUN, or ALSIN.

TlDFERA, or WlDFRED.

WEREMUND, or WARMUND,
who died or was martyred
in 870.

After 870 both sees were again
successor of Weremund.

after the division of the diocese*

Bishops of North Elmham.
BEDWINK, or BEADWINE, also

called Eadwin, consecrated

in 673. He died in 679.
NORTHBERT, also called Rod-

berht.
HEATHOLAC, or ETELAT, called

by Malmesbury, Netholacus.

He was bishop in 731, when

St. Bede finished his history.
AETHILFERTH, or EDELFRID.
LANFERTH, called in Cottonian

MS. Vesp. B. vi. Eanferd.
/ETHELWULF occurs in 811.
ALCH^ERD, called also Unferth.
ALHERD, or Eatherd.
SIPLA.
HUNFERD, ALHERD, or

HUFRED, living in 824.
HUNFEHHT, HUMBERT, or

HUMBRICT, called also St.

Humbert, consecrated in 820

and martyred with king

Edmund 870, in about the

80th year of his age.

united under Bishop Wilred, the

T>6 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

him the young Prince Edmund sought help and advice.
In his company the royal youth attended Ethelwulph's
council at Winchester. Afterwards, on Edmund's re-
turn to Norfolk, Bishop Humbert assembled the Wite-
nagemote, or meeting of earldormen, thanes and higher
clergy, at Attleborough, and induced them to acknow-
ledge the boy-king's sovereignty.

The friendship Under these circumstances sprang up that close and
Edmund and lasting friendship between prince and bishop which

Bishop Humbert

forms so beautiful and touching a feature in St.
Edmund's life. Their relations as pupil and master still
more closely knit them together, for, judging from the
custom of the time, St. Humbert acted not only as
the young prince's spiritual father and temporal adviser,
but also as his preceptor and his instructor in the
divine psalmody. The bishop was thus brought daily
into contact with the saintly boy, whose manly yet
amiable disposition quickly won his affection and esteem.
Edmund on his side loved and revered the kindly
prelate with all the devotion of a boy's pure and im-
passioned heart. This " inseparable " companionship of
the fair boy-king and the venerable pontiff lasted in
life and death. Together they ruled East Anglia,
together they resisted its invaders, together they re-
ceived the crown of martyrdom. What nobler models
could youth or old age propose to themselves ! St.
Humbert in his devotedness to a boy's interests, in his
knowledge of a boy's nature and consideration for it is a
pattern to all who have the charge of youth ; St.
Edmund, on the other hand, in his respect for and
confidence in his priest and master justly stands forth
as the patron of the young and especially of students.
Bishop Humbert In the beginning of their friendship St. Humbert
Edmund's claim, succeeded, as stated above, in persuading the North
Folk of East Anglia to acknowledge Prince Edmund's
claim. Now that he had had ample opportunities of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 57

studying the character of his young sovereign, he
determined to promote his cause among the South Folk
also. Accordingly he sent messengers to the chief men
of the whole kingdom calling upon them for the good
of the realm to meet and discuss the question of a
successor to King Offa.

Some time elapsed before the bishop's summons
reached the more distant parts of the country, and then
the nation quickly responded. A rumour was abroad
that the Danes threatened the eastern coasts, and the
people anxiously sought for a leader in case of invasion.
Another circumstance called for the speedy settlement
of the question. Petty claimants all over the land
began to exercise a tyrannical and unbridled power.
The firm hand and strong arm of supreme authority
could alone check their lawlessness or frustrate their
pretensions. l Bishop Humbert thoroughly realized all
this. As an argument in his mouth, it quickly con-
'vinced the wise men of the realm of the necessity of a elect h£n King!
king. He had next to propose Prince Edmund as the
proper object of their choice. By birth Edmund stood
nearest to the throne. The will of the late king, to
which the twenty thanes who had returned from the
Holy Land bore witness, gave him a double right. He
possessed, moreover, the signet ring, the symbol of
supreme power, which the dying Offa had entrusted to
him as his son and heir. Edmund's genuine and well
known virtue, his high character and royal bearing no
one could gainsay. The bishop failed not to press home
these arguments. He anticipated the objections of those
who desired an older and more soldier-like sovereign.
Was not Edmund stalwart and valiant ? By braving
the seas and commanding a successful expedition into
the country, had he not proved himself capable of
leading even veterans to battle and victory ? The

1 See John Brompton, " Chron.," p. 748, quoted by Battely, p. 1 1.

58 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

eloquence and reasoning of the venerable Humbert
prevailed. l The assembly unanimously approved of
King Offa's choice. " The pious youth," writes Matthew
of Westminster, " was elected king by all the nobles and
people of the kingdom, and compelled in spite of great
resistance on his own part to assume the reins of
government. 2
Edmund makes . After this Edmund began a royal progress through

a progress . J

through his his kingdom, attended by the magnificent and numerous

kingdom. J

retinue which had accompanied him from Saxony.
Everywhere his youth, his bright and charming manner,
the halo of sanctity about him gained the hearts of
his subjects, while his manly bearing, his deep and
penetrating gaze, his wise and tempered words inspired
a confidence which remained unshaken even in the
most trying times.
He is anointed For the place of his coronation the newly elected

and consecrated »

atsudtmry. king fixed upon Bures, more correctly spelt by Lydgate
Bnrys, a town on the frontiers of Suffolk and Essex.
Gaufridus speaks of it as a " royal town" situated " on
the Stour, a river flowing most rapidly in summer and
winter." Bures was in fact the southern capital of East
Anglia as Attleborough was the northern ; hence its
more common appellation of Sud-bury, or the South
borough.3

1 " Curis et industria Humbert! Helmahamensis episcopi ad reg-
num evectus est Edmundus." — Propre de St. Sernin, A.D. 1672.

2 See also Roger of Wendover (Bohn's edit., p. 186). St. Abbo
writes : "Qui atavis regibus editus, cum bonis polleret moribus,
omnium comprovincialium unanimi favore non tantum eligitur ex
generis successione, quantum rapitur ut eis prseesset sceptrigera
potestate." ("Vita Sti Edmi. R.," Migne's Patrol., vol. 130.)

3 See Battely, p. 15, and Yates, p. 31. A marginal note in MS.
4826 of the Harleian collection gives Sudbury or the South-borough
as the town of St. Edmund's coronation. Camden, Leland and
Hearn are likewise in favour of Sudbury in preference to Bury or
Bures-St.-Mary. This latter town, though situated on the Stour,
is as much in Essex as in East Anglia. It has never been a place

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYR. 59

The boy-king arrived in Sudbury towards the close
of the year 856. There he probably spent Advent —
the forty days of waiting which, St. Bede affirms, the
English Church set aside before Christmas as well as
before Easter for special prayer and penance. Such a
time accorded well with King Edmund's desire for quiet
and meditation. He employed it in preparation, not
only for Christmas, but also for his consecration and
coronation, which he appointed to take place on that
day. As the festival of Our Saviour's birth drew near,
Edmund listened in the church to the great vesper
antiphons of the season, applying to himself in a special
way the lessons which they taught. The " 0 Sapientia"
— "0 Wisdom " — reminded him of King Solomon, who
chose wisdom to reign in preference to all other gifts.
The antiplion ended, " Veni ad docenduni nos viam
prudentire," — " Come and teach us the way of pru-
dence." Edmund deeply felt his need of prudence
in the difficult task of ruling. Again the Church sang :
" 0 Key of David and Sceptre of the House of Israel,"
" 0 Orient Sun of Justice," " 0 King of Nations our
Law-giver ; " — each title expressive of longing for the
coming of Christ Our Lord found a corresponding echo
in the young king's heart. Oh, how fervently lie
besought the eternal Son of God to come and be the
Sceptre of his reign, his Sun of justice, and the law-
giver of his kingdom !

of great importance, much less a " royal town" or a residence of the
East Anglian kings. Why any author should have suggested
Bury-St. -Edmund's, Bury in Lancashire, or Burne in Lincolnshire,
is unaccountable. Not one of them is situated on the river Stour.
Bury-St. -Edmund's was Beodricsworth, not Bury, in the time of
St. Edmund's first biographers. Bury in Lancashire has no con-
nection at all with King Edmund of East Anglia. Burne is
evidently a copyist's blunder. Gaufridus' statement is so explicit
that there can be no doubt that Sudbury was the town of St.
Edmund's coronation.

60 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Sfs&T Day> At last Christmas day, 856, dawned. The choir
chanted the night song ; and after each nocturn a cleric
removed one of the three coverings of the altar, first
the violet or black, then the red, and lastly the white.
The three masses of Christmas day began, solemnized
by the English Church, according to St. Gregory the
Great,1 in honour of the three comings of Christ, — His
coming into this world in human flesh, His coming in
spirit into our souls, and His coming in glory and
majesty at the last day. Crowds of people attended
each mass. Then they joined the eager spectators who
in spite of the bleak weather thronged the town. The
boats fringing the river banks, the din of voices, the
tramp of feet, the streets lined with people all pro-
claimed the nation's interest in its sovereign's corona-
tion. And now the time draws near for the third
mass, at which Bishop Humbert will anoint and crown
the king. All along the route from the palace to the
church the "merry and jovial" East Anglians wait
good-lmmouredly for the procession to pass.

The coronation Soon there issue forth from the dim precincts of the

procession.

church boys in white with smoking censers and the
vase of holy water ; then others bearing* aloft Christ's
rood, the holy cross, and carrying burning lights to
do it honour. A long line of white-robed priests follows,
and last comes the saintly pontiff, crozier in hand,
blessing the kneeling people. Through the streets,
clean swept and strewn with reeds or tapestry, the
procession makes its way to the king's lodgings, sing-
ing the Eoman chant which Felix and Sigebert first
taught the people. Arrived in the royal presence, the
procession forms again. Before the king a thane
walks bearing the golden sceptre, and then another with
the rod of justice ; next a throng of priests and monks ;
nobles follow carrying unsheathed swords, the royal

1 8th Homily.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 61

insignia, the coronation robes and the crown of gold
and precious stones ; last of all, amidst a crowd of
warriors and thanes, and of wise men and earldormen,
and of freemen with flowing hair, and of serfs newly
freed, walk the boy-king and the aged bishop side by
side under a silken canopy held aloft on the spears of
the four bravest knights of East Anglia.

The procession reaches the church, which was builr, The procession

reaches the

as St. Bennet s masons built Wearmoutn and Jarrow, in church,
stone rough hewn, with walls of great thickness, semi-
circular arches and massive columns. Each royal
domain and even the lands of earldormen and thanes
rejoiced in many such churches.1 The kings of East
Anglia from the time of St. Eorpwald, St. Sigebert and
St. Annas, to the time of St. Ethelbert and Offa
imitating the example of the kings of North umbria
and Wessex, raised temples as worthy as possible
of the (rod whom they adored. Their subjects, too,
moved by what they heard or witnessed of the solem-
nity of worship in Koine, despising all considerations
of labour and expense, vied with each other in erect-
ing churches in which no ornament or decoration
they knew of should be wanting. Walls of polished
masonry and roofs of lead took the place of oaken
planks covered with reeds and straw. Lofty towers
added dignity and majesty to the building, windows
of glass, to the astonishment of the still half-savage
multitude, admitted light yet excluded wind and rain.
Rough and wanting perhaps in symmetry of form, the winch is spien-
East Anglian church lacked to-day nothing in richness
and grandeur. The interior, washed with lime, rivalled
the fresh fallen snow in whiteness. The walls dis-
played in all magnificence the most valuable spoils
taken from the Mercians in the late wars. Curtains

1 See St. Bede "Hist. Eccles.," bk. iii. c. 22 and 30; bk. v. c.
20 and 45.

02 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

of silk, pictures of Our Lord's miracles, paintings of
the Blessed Mother of God and of the twelve Apostles
hung around. The altar, always profusely decorated,
sparkled on this occasion with gold and gems. A
lofty crucifix surmounted it, and above all hung the
pliarus, filled with rows of lamps which shed their
mellow light over the sanctuary, making the dim nave
and aisles look dimmer in the wintry mist. Here and
there, suspended from ceiling and arch, burning censers
filled the sanctuary and nave with perfume. Arch-
bishop Theodore and Abbot Adrian had introduced the
organ from Italy, and, as the royal procession left
the open air and entered the dark portico which
covered the doorway, the " thousand voices of the
organ " and the humbler sound of the harp pealed
through the building. Meanwhile the joy-bells, such as
Cumeneas, abbot of lona, wrote of, rang out over the
country around.1 So priest and people conducted their
young prince to the church, the sound of their chant
growing louder and louder and filling the church as
the singers entered and grouped themselves within the
precincts of the sanctuary.

Edmund makes Arrived at the altar, the boy-king kneels before the
mandate, mitred pontiff, and with hands upon the book of
gospels, written may-be like St. Wilfrid's in letters
of gold upon a purple ground, and bound in gold and
precious stones, solemnly pronounces the three man-
dates still preserved in the English coronation service.
They are a promise on the part of the king and at the
same time a proclamation to his subjects, a species of
compact between monarch and people, ratified by the
Church's blessing. " In the name of the Holy Trinity,"
sweet and clear sounds the young king's voice, " in all
the days of my life let God's Church and all Christian

1 See Lingard's "Anglo-Saxon Church," vol. ii. p. 369, 1st edit.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 63

folk be held in peace and honour and reverence." All
around answer : " Amen." " Let all rapine and every
sort of iniquity be interdicted to all classes of my
subjects." The same solemn " Amen " ratifies the
second mandate. "Justice and mercy shall be ob-
served in all judgments, that the great and merciful
God may of His everlasting mercy forgive us all."
Again bishop and thanes and priests and all the voices
of that great assembly answer ".Amen." Tor a
memorial they place a copy of these solemn promises
upon the altar. 1

Then began the celestial and mysterious sacrifice And assists at

Christ's Mass.

wherein the elements of the bread and wine are,
through the unutterable " hallowing of the Spirit, made
to pass into the mystery of Christ's Ilesh and Blood."2
To-day every vessel used in this sacred action is of
gold or silver. Richly embroidered and jewelled vest-
ments clothe the ministers at the altar. The liturgy is
the old liturgy brought to the island by St. Augustine,
in essentials differing nothing from that of liome, the
mother and ruler of all the Churches, and familiar to
the Catholic of the present day. Like every rite of
holy Church, the solemn function speaks of another
land and of another world, even of heaven and of the
invisible angels. The language is not the language of
every day, but the holy Latin tongue of God's kingdom
of saints and martyrs. The sacred ministers, no longer
of the earth, apparelled in white raiments flowing and
graceful, ascend and descend around the altar like
the angels in Jacob's vision. Truly the whole scene
reveals the nearness of Him to whom the angels are
ministering spirits.

1 In some copies of Archbishop Egbert's Pontifical these three
mandata are given at the end of the coronation ceremony. Martene
and Lingard both put them at the beginning. Collectively they
are spoken of as the " prinmm mandatum regis ad populum."
2 See Venerable Bede's " Horn, in Epiphan."

£4 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

anoints "Tlbert After tlie g°sPel> which told of the divine and human
young kins, generations of the King of kings,1 the pontiff pro-
nounced a blessing over the kneeling prince. Imme-
diately the chanters sang the antiphon, " Unxerunt
Salomon." — " They anointed Solomon," 2 — following it
up with the psalm, "Domine in virtiite tua Iretabitur rex,"
— " In Thy strength, 0 Lord, the king shall joy ; and in
Thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly." Meanwhile
the bishop poured the horn of oil on the boy-king's
head and breast and arms : on his head to signify the
glory of the kingship ; on his breast to signify the
strength of the warrior ; on his arms to signify the
necessity of working with knowledge and wisdom for
his people. At each anointing the venerable pontiff
prayed that the Almighty would sanctify this youth
by the unction of oil, as He sanctified His servant
Aaron and His priests and kings and prophets to
rule over His people Israel. And all the time the
choir sang the prophetic verses of the twentieth psalm :

" Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast
not withholden from him the will of his lips.

"For Thou hast prevented him with sweetness. Thou
hast set on his head a crown of precious stones . .

"Glory and great beauty shall Thou lay upon him.

" Thou shalt give him to be a blessing for ever
and ever . . . For the king hopeth in the Lord."
An.i clothes him '^ie anointing finished, Edmund, seated on his
robes!'0' throne, assumed the royal robes. The venerable

bishop clothed him in tunic and dalmatic, the vest-
ments of the sacred ministers of the altar, reciting at

1 John i. There was a special mass for the crowning of kings,
but probably, according to the immemorial custom of the Church,
only a commemoration was made from it on so great a feast.

- 3 Kings i. 39, and Ant. Mag. Dom. vii. post Pent. : "They
anointed Solomon king, in Gabon, Sadoc the priest and Nathan
the prophet, and going up they said rejoicing, The king live
for ever."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 65

the same time the prayers, to which priests and people
answered, " Amen." Two thanes, approaching, knelt
and put sandals on the king's feet ; others threw over
his shoulders the royal mantle ; then the bishop,
attended by the chief nobles, put into his hands the
golden sceptre of mercy and the iron rod of justice,
both emblematic of the office of judge. Next, to remind
him of his duties as knight and warrior, attendants
handed him the naked sword, by which to strike down
the rebel and the oppressor, and put on his head the
helmet, the symbol of the divine protection. Sceptres
of gold and iron, sword and helmet, are now laid aside,
and the king proceeds to the altar to receive the ring
of righteousness and the crown.1 At this point, Bishop
Humbert earnestly exhorts the young prince not to
accept the last emblems of kingly power and office,
unless he is resolved to observe what the Church now
so publicly and solemnly ratifies. Edmund answers
that boy though he is, by the grace of God he will
fulfil all the duties of a good king. His after his-
tory will show how faithfully, even by the sacrifice of
his life, he kept the promises of his coronation day.

The prince himself then took the crown from the The coronation.
altar and handed it to the pontiff. St. Humbert, with-
out hesitation, put it upon the boy-king's head, saying
' May God crown thee with the crown of glory, with
the honour of justice, with the power of strength,
that by our blessing, with strong faith and abundant
fruit of good works, thou mayest obtain the crown of

1 Lydgate writes :

"The ryche crowne was set on his lied,
To rewle the peple thorugh his noblesse,
And held the swerd to kepe hem undir dreed
That wolde be wrong, thepoore peple oppresse.
The sceptre of pees, the ryng of ryghtwysnesse,
Conserve a kyng in his estat most strong."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The
enthronement.

The mass
proceeds.

The king's
offering in the
mass.

an everlasting kingdom, by His gracious gift whose
kingdom remains for ever and ever."

With crown on head, with the sceptre of peace placed
once more in his right hand and the rod of iron in his
left, with incense burning before him, King Edmund
with firm step walks to his throne and takes possession
of it. Pontiff and sacred ministers, knights and thanes
accompany him. Thrice the bishop and his assistants,
standing before the throne, entone the " Long live the
king," and thrice thanes, knights and people take it up ;
thrice they all repeat the confirmatory, " Amen, amen,
amen," and then approach to receive their sovereign's
kiss. Hardly had the last thane received the royal
embrace, when the voice of the pontiff again prayed
aloud that God, the Author of Eternity, the Leader of
the heavenly hosts, the Vanquisher of all His enemies,
would bless His servant Edmund, whose head was.
humbly bent in lowly worship before Him, would shed
His grace on the newly crowned, and keep him in
health and happiness during his earthly sojourn.

The bishop now continues the holy sacrifice. He
offers the offldc, or white round loaf of unleavened
bread, which has been baked under the very eye of
a priest. The sacred ministers meanwhile pour wine
through a strainer into a chalice, and mingle with the
wine a few drops of clearest water to signify God's
union with our nature. The pontiff holds aloft the
chalice also, afterwards making with it the sign of
the cross over the place where it is to rest, a rite
emblematic of the laying of Christ upon the cross.

Here the king left his throne for the foot of the altar,
in order to make his Christmas and coronation offering.
In Saxon England the oblations of the faithful on
Christmas day differed at each mass. At the mid-
night solemnity they offered lights — emblems of that
true lisht which on this nidit first shone in tha

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAHTYIJ. 67

darkness. At the mass at dawn of day they gave
bread, because Christ on Christmas day became our
bread, our source of life, in Bethlehem, which signifies
the House of Bread. At the mass in the middle of the
day they offered money, to signify that the Eternal
Son became united to our nature as an image is
impressed upon a coin. King Edmund, therefore,
kneeling on the steps of the altar, made the offering to
the bishop of a large coin of purest gold, the same
being the usual offering at a coronation.

The mass proceeds. The choirs sing the " ter sanctus." g^g
The celebrant beseeches the most clement Father,
through His Son Jesus Christ, to bless and accept the
unspotted gifts ; he makes the remembrance of the
living and of the dead ; invokes the saints ; prays for
the king in preface and canon. l The many mystic
signs of the cross are formed, the bread and chalice
consecrated, and offered to Him to Whom alone is all
honour and glory. Lastly the pontiff breaks the Host
and prepares to eat the heavenly bread and to drink
of the chalice of salvation. As the celebration of the
sacred mysteries thus drew to an end, the king
approached the altar to receive the Holy Housel, " the
saving victim of the Lord's Body and Blood." 2 As he
knelt at the foot of the altar, the venerable pontiff
placed upon his tongue the sacred Host, and put to his
royal lips the chalice of Christ's Blood : " May the
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ guard and
protect thee," said the bishop. Both king and pontiff
added, " Deo gratias."

Quickly now they finish the mass. Quickly the Ss?eremony
crowds hasten from the church to await outside the

1 Egbert's Pontifical, besides assigning a special collect, secret,
and post communion for the mass at a king's consecration, also
assigned a place in both the preface and canon for the sovereign's

name.

2 St. Bede.

68 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

royal procession. With a magnificent retinue the
newly crowned sovereign comes forth and passes in
triumphal procession through the streets amidst the
acclamations of the people, lleturning to the church,
he puts off his royal robes, assumes lighter ones, and
then proceeds to his palace. A banquet closes the
day. Thus, " in the year of our Lord's incarnation
856," writes a contemporary,1 "Humbert, bishop of
the East Angles, anointed with oil and consecrated
as king the glorious Edmund, with much rejoicing
and great honour," in the royal town of Sudbury,
" in which at that time was the royal seat, in the
fifteenth year of his age, on a Friday, it being Christ-
mas day."

1 Asser, Bohn's edit., p. 50.

CHAPTER IV.

St, Edmund's Sovereignty — His Character and Rule.

Authorities — St Abbo's "Vita et Passio Sti. Edmundi" is the most ancient and
valuable narrative illustrating St. Edmund's position in the England of his
day and his character and influence in East Anglia. At least thirty manu-
script copies of this important " Vita" exist. The British Museum possesses
sixteen, the Oxford libraries six, Cambridge one. Several are lodged in the
Royal Library at Paris. Copenhagen, Gotha and Vienna possess one each.
The cathedral library of Lucca (Bibl. Canon.) preserves two not mentioned by
Hardy, and the initial letter of one of them contains a portrait of St. Edmund.
The Lives of St. Edmund by Osbert de Clare and Hermanns are also
transcripts of St. Abbo's work with a few verbal alterations. Of St.
Abbo's compositions in honour of the royal martyr, Bodl. Digby 100
veil, small folio xiii. cent, is certainly the most interesting. It begins
with the letter to St. Dunstan, the life and passion of St. Edmund follows,
then come the antiphon " Ave Rex Anglor in " set to music, and the
proper office for St. Edmund's feast. The antiphons of the office, all set to
chant, are most touchingly worded, and the lessons full of devotion and feeling.
St. Abbo's ."Vita et Passio Sti. Edmundi" remained imprinted till the
Itith cent., when the Carthusian Suiius brought it out among his Vitas
Sanctorum (Nov. 20, vol. iv. 440) where, contrary to his usual practice, he
does not alter the style, considering it sufficiently good. In fact, in spite of one
or two middle age expressions, St. Abbo wrote in a style worthy of the praise of
Mabillon. Remarkable for his realistic expressions, lie charmingly displays his
talent for exposition throughout his works. It is to be hoped that his minute-
ness of detail will lose none of its charm by being occasionally put into an
English dress. Migne also prints Abbo's Life of St. Edmund in his Latin
Patrology, torn. 139, and a translation of it occurs in a work entitled "Vies
de plusieurs saints illustres des divers siecles," by Arnand d'Andilly. Lastly
Arnold edits it for the Rolls Series in his " Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey,"
vol. i. St. Abbo seems to have also written a life of St. Edward the King and
Martyr, and an account of the translation of St. Benedict's relics to Fleury.

This illustrious biographer of St. Edmund was one of the most enlightened
and active-minded men of his age. From his Life by his disciple Aiinoiu (Migne
torn, cxxxix. and from the exhaustive " Histoire de Saint Abbon " (LecofTre fils
et Cie, Paris) by Abbe Pardiac, we learn that Abbo was born at Orleans about
the year 940. His parents offered him in his childhood to St. Benedict, and
saw him receive the monastic cowl in the famous abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire.
Fleury was then closely connected with England. From it the new monastic
advance initiated by St. Dunstan received all its vigour; thither St. Ethel-
wold of Winchester sent his disciple Osgar to imbibe the true Benedictine
spirit, and to study in its famous school. St. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury,
brought over from Fleury a body of Benedictines to assist him in the govern-
ment of his diocese. St. Oswald, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of
York, when a young man, took the habit in its sanctuary and afterwards
applied there for monks to start Ramsey abbey. In answer to his appeal
Germanus came as abbot, and St. Abbo, who had studied both at Ilheims and
Paris, who had superintended the school at Fleury, and was already renowned
for his works on mathematics, liturgy, history, grammar and poetry, came to
organise the abbey school. Not only at Ramsey, but also at Canterbury, York,
Cambridge and St. Edmund's Bury, Abbo founded schools. At St. Edmund's
Bury he heard the history of St. Edmund and gained his great devotion to him.
At Canterbury he again heard the narrative from his intimate friend St.
Dunstan. St. Dunstan himself heard the story of the. royal martyr's life and
martyrdom when a young favourite at court, from an old man bent and decrepit,
who asserted on oath that he was St. Edmund's sword-bearer on the day of
the holy martyr's death, and who related it as an eye-witness " with simplicity

70 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

and full of faith" to the glorious King Athelstan (A.D. 925). In later times
Archbishop Dunstan often repeated the narrative, and once related it with
tears in his eyes to Aelfstan, bishop of Rochester, to the Abbot of Malmesbury,
St. Abboand others. At the request of the monks of Ramsey Abbo committed
the narrative to writing. St. Abbo is therefore a reliable authority. In order to
protect himself against all inaccuracies, he took the precaution of sending his
manuscript to " his holiness," tua sanctitas, St. Dunstan, praying him to
correct anything contrary to historical truth. Yates, however, in his History
of Bury (p. 25) seems to think that St. Abbo's work is of little value, since he
did not see St. Dunstan till A.D. 9S5, i.e. 50 years after the archbishop had
heard the history of St. Edmund. The prelate himself did not hear the
narrative till CO years after it happened, and ihen from a man of an age when
the memory is defective and treacherous. Yates, besides being incorrect in his
statements, forgets that other eye-witnesses, independent of the old sword-
bearer, often related the same facts. Again, St. Abboand even St. Dunstan
when at St. Edmund's Bury, could, and probably did, consult the records kept
by the contemporary guardians of St. Edmund's shrine who treasured up every
incident in the life of their royal patron. Abbo wrote his "Life and Passion of St.
Edmund " in the 7th year of King Ethelred's reign, i.e. A.D. 085. On leaving
England he became Abbot of Fleury. In 1004 lie undertook the reform of the
monastery of Reole, where he met his death, Nov. 13 of the same year,
through a deep spear-thrust in the left arm which he received in a rising of the
Gascons against the French. The church at Keole still honours him as its patron.
Besides Abbe Pardiac's book, see for St. Abbo's Life and works, Mabillon's
" Acta Sanct. Ord. Bened.," vol. xiii. 35. Migne's Latin Patrol, vol. 139,
the introduction to the " Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey," p. xxii.

The "VitaSancti Edmundi Regis etMartyris" MS. Ilarl. 2S02 a large xii.
cent, folio volume, also contains f. 226 b. useful matter on St. Edmund's
character and reign. The author of this piece has not been ascertained. It
begins, " Gloriosus Rex Edmundus ex-antiquorum Saxonum nobili prosapia
oriundus," and ends, " Ad laudem Domini nostri Jesu Christ!, cui est honor
et gloria in secula. Amen."

Lydgate still continues useful, and Alban Butler and Dom Cressy, O.S.B.
both describe in short the character of St. Edmund's rule.]

st. Edmund's CiiEONiCLERS of St. Edmund's life differ with regard

age on his

accession to the to his age on coming to the throne and the subsequent

throne.

events of his reign. Their disagreement chiefly arises
from a difference in the dates from which they start.
Some, for instance, begin the young king's reign from
the death of King Offa, others from the landing at
Hunstanton, from the election at Attleborough, or
from the royal consecration at Sudbury. Hence one
records that Edmund ascended the throne in his thir-
teenth year, another places that event in his fourteenth
or fifteenth year, and William of Malmesbury strangely
puts it in the saint's sixteenth year. Asser, a con-
temporary writer, mentions two accessions of St.
Edmund, but removes all ambiguity by giving the
dates and circumstances of both. Edmund, he says,
began his reign in his fourteenth year, on Christmas
day, 855, a few weeks after his return from the court
of Ethelwulph; and the Christmas following, in the
fifteenth year of his age, Bishop Humbert anointed
and crowned him king of the whole country. Had

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAIITYK. 71

other writers been as explicit as Asser, no confusion
could have arisen with regard to St. Edmund's age or
the date of his accession.

Edmund once king becomes a prominent figure in the st. Eiimumi'

sovereignty.

history of his day. The few scanty records of his
country which have survived treat of him as the great-
est of East Anglian sovereigns. Malmesbury and
William of Croyland, while lamenting a century's
anarchy and disorder previous to St. Edmund, hail his
accession as the beginning of a new era. With a
strong hand, writes Simeon of Durham, Edmund held
the supreme power. Records which hardly meant to
speak of him describe his rule as that of no ordinary
petty sovereign, but worthy to rank with Ina's, Offa's,
Egbert's or Alfred's in the annals of our country. The
.Danish invaders, recognising him as the most redoubt-
able of the English kings, brought all their force
to bear against his kingdom. His sturdy resistance
and final victory on their first landing, and his alliance
with Mercia under the walls of Nottingham more than
ever convinced them of the absolute necessity of subdu-
ing the defender of East Anglia before making any
attack on Wessex or Mercia. Having subjugated
Edmund, they hoped to find the rest of England an
easy conquest. What the nation thought of the valour
of Edmund's life the exceptional worship paid to him
after death testifies. Other kings fell victims to the
Danish sword, but neither their holiness nor their
prowess merited the distinction which England bes-
towed on the royal martyr of East Anglia.

Some writers speak of St. Edmund as a tributary and ^V
dependent sovereign. The contrary was the case.
Simeon of Durham1 and Roger of Hovedon, while
stating the fact that " Rex Edmundus ipsis temporibus
regnavit super omnia regna orientalium" — "In those days
1 Surtecs Publ., p. 50, no. 51.

72 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Kinrj Edmund ruled over the whole of East Anglia"—
make no mention of his subordination to any other
sovereign. Lydgate unhesitatingly asserts that "he
had of Estyngland holly the governance." And Matthew
of Westminster,1 as well as Florence of Worcester, 2
speak of his succeeding to the supreme power. Add to
this the remarkable omission of East Anglia in the con-
temporary lists of kingdoms tributary to Ethelwulph
of Wessex. That monarch, on succeeding his father
Egbert as king of England, made over to his sou
Athelstan the provinces of Kent, Essex and Sussex.
On the death of Athelstan he resumed the government
of Kent, Sussex and Essex, and resigned the western
portion of his kingdom in favour of his second son King
Ethelbald. In his last testament he bequeathed Essex
Kent, Sussex and Surrey to his third son Ethelbert.
In none of these instances do the contemporary chroni-
clers mention East Anglia.3 King Edmund had indeed
graced the court of Ethelwulph on the memorable 5th
of November, A.D. 855, but neither Ethelwulph nor his
sons treated him as an under-king. His claim to East
Anglia rested on his Uffing blood and the choice of the
people. There is no record of any neighbouring power
supporting him. At his consecration and coronation
at Suclbury he took no oath to a suzerain, As inde-
pendent of Wessex as Xorthumbria was, lie ruled a
traditionally independent people. Under this impres-
sion the Danes treated with him. He professed to
them that he had been consecrated by God in the
solemn rite of coronation to rule and guide his people,

1 Bohn's edit, vol. i. p. 404, A.D. 855.

- "Monumenta Historica Brittanica," vol. i. p. 547, 552.
3 See Asser's "Life of Alfred," A.D. 855. Ethehverd's Cliron.,
bk. v. chap. i. collated with the Angl. Saxon Chron. A.D. 855. See
also Matt, of Westminster, A.D. 861, and Lingard's Hist, of England,
vol. i. A.D. 836 et seq. on the successors of Egbert.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR. 73

arid to God only was he tributary. To no over-king
would he do homage. In fact, no English kingdom
demanded his allegiance. Northumbria was too torn
with dissensions to attempt it. Mercia had tried and
failed. Ethelwnlph and his sons found their own
frontiers threatened with bands of sea-pirates, and had
no wish to assert supremacy over a kingdom which
might rival their own. They preferred to leave the
long coast-line of East Anglia, the first to greet the
pirates fresh from the North, to its brave king and
his equally brave subjects.

St. Edmund worthily filled the position which Divine m*
Providence assigned to him. His personal appearance
showed him every inch a king. From birth to man-
hood nature had favoured him with her gifts. His face
was young but manly, his complexion fair and fresh,
his forehead lofty, his hair light and flowing. A some-
what prominent nose enhanced rather than marred his
beauty, and eyes deep and blue beamed with the joy
of a soul which saw in every event of life the wisdom
and clemency of Clod. Tall of stature, of firm and sym-
metrical build,1 he possessed before he reached maturity,
"the strength and robustness," say the old Sarum
lessons, " of one in the flower of his age." The majesty
of his mien impressed all who beheld him. " Imperium
tenebat," writes the Ely Chronicler,2 speaking rather
of his personal bearing than of his mode of government;
and Abbo pictures him noble and stately as an
emperor, but with a serenity of disposition which gave
a grace to his every speech and action.

In his private life Edmund observed the utmost His private
simplicity. His unassuming manner charmed all who
came in contact with him. He was affable and cour-

1 Roger of Wendover, Bohn's edit., vol. i. p. 195.
' Historia Elieusis," Anglia Christiana Society, p. 79.

74 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

teous to the poorest and the lowliest. l However tried or
occupied, he never lost his equanimity or his kindly
sympathy for others. Yet with his fellow princes as
with his own thanes his superiority asserted itself, not
by outward haughtiness, but by an inherent gentleness
which none could resist. His parents had educated
him to become a saint and a martyr rather than a
prince of the world. Throughout his career, but
especially in his less public life, this early training
showed itself in an ardent striving to form his soul for
God, and in an unflinching resoluteness in the perfor-
mance of duty. ' Toto conamine virtutis arripuit gra-
dum," " with all his miyht he strove after virtue" writes
his earliest biographer. 2 His chaste and celibate life is
a standing proof of his high spiritual perfection. In his
daily conduct he guided himself by the commands and
will of God, whom alone he desired to please, and in
this he swerved " neither to the right nor to the left,
either by extolling himself for his merits or by suc-
cumbing to human frailty.3 All day long, at home
and abroad, his mind was fixed on God. "Heaven-
ward soared his soul," sings the poet of his life.
He was " ever adoring God," exclaims Simeon of
Durham. And, in order that the distracting occupa-
tions of his office might not gradually weaken this
union with his Creator, the saintly king frequently
withdrew to some country retreat, there to refresh
his soul with meditations and pious exercises. By this
means he maintained the high tone and vigour of his
spiritual life.
HIS love for Edmund took great delight in field sports and all out-

lield sports.

door exercises. He threw into them all the earnestness

1 " Erat omnibus blando eloquio atfabilis, hunrilitatis gratia
prceclarus, et inter suos coevos mirabili mansuetudine residebat
dominus absque ullo fastu superbiiB." — St. Abbo.

2 St. Abbo. 3 MS. Harl. 2802.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 75

of his nature. The hunting and hawking, however, of
his leisure hours were with him no mere purposeless
killing of time. Besides being often the alternative
of idleness, of which, says one of his biographers, he was
" the declared enemy," these recreations prepared him
for other duties. The young king, like the ancient
Cyrus, used them to acquire boldness, coolness and
strategy in the field, and thus to inspire even veteran
warriors with confidence in his leadership.

The virtues of his private life made Edmund a most HIS character
successful ruler. In the beginning of his reign he put
himself under the spiritual guidance of St. Humbert,
to whom, next to God, he mainly owed his humility, his
purity and his Christlike affability. With this training
and that of Sigentius, his father's old adviser, he grew
up into the model of a perfect prince. Of all his
public virtues a winning graciousness of manner chiefly
distinguished him. According to Eichard of Ciren-
cester,1 he always had before his eyes the words of
Ecclesiasticusj " Have they made thee ruler ? be net
lifted up ; be among them as one of them." 2 At the
same time he administered justice with a firm hand,
taking the law of God as the unerring standard of
right and wrong. Before giving judgment he would
examine with his own eyes and hear with his own
ears. Thus, with dovelike simplicity, yet with the
prudence of the serpent, he frustrated the evil designs
of flatterers and informers. In matters of importance
he invariably took counsel of others. Like Solomon,
a special child of wisdom, he had won a throne by his
discretion and prudence, but he did not on that account
think himself capable of governing his dominions,
narrow though their limits, without the aid of others.
He exemplified throughout his reign the inspired

1 Rolls Publ., vol. i. p. 331 ct seq. - Ecclus. xxii. 1.

76 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

proverb, " He that is wise hearkeneth unto counsels." l
Sfc- Edmund's desire to grant the just demands of
even the poorest of his subjects brought him early in
his reign in conflict with the rough spirits whom the
late unsettled state of affairs had multiplied through-
out the land. King Offa had successfully repressed the
lawlessness and disorder consequent on the Mercian
wars. In his later years, however, Offa had been weak
and infirm. For three years at least he had been absent
from the kingdom, and no supreme ruler had taken
his place. Consequently, oppression of the poor,
open murder and rapine, the tyranny of the strong
over the weak had again become the order of the
day. Edmund boldly attacked the evil. So well
had he learnt the lesson of his coronation, that,
while cherishing his quiet and obedient subjects
with the sceptre of peace, he hesitated not to un-
sheath the sword of justice and to wield the rod of
iron against the wild and rebellious. " Benign to the
submissive," Malmesbury writes of him, " severe to the
rebellious." Yet he acted with a tact that gained the
love and veneration of all. In the rough times in
which he lived, several kings devoted to duty lost their
lives in opposing lawlessness and injustice. Such had
been the fate of his predecessor St. Eorpwald, and later
on his namesake King Edmund I. fell by the dagger of
an outlaw. If St. Edmund was anything he was an
" upholder of the law of God " — " divince Icgis apprime
tcnax," — a most impartial administrator of justice, a
fearless guardian of the happiness and prosperity of his
people ; yet no discontented subject raised a hand
against him in vengeance or hate. Wrong-doers suffered
from the firmness and resolution, hard and unflinching
as a rock, with which he punished them ; but his

1 Proverbs xii. 15.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYlt. 77

imimpassioned manner and the kindness with which he
tempered his severity conciliated the hardest criminal.1

In his work of reform St. Edmund called in the help «*• Edmund ar.

*• the Church.

of the Church. Wise policy dictated the employment
of the Church's individual care and training of his
subjects as a power for good ; but the young king's
appreciation of the Church and its priesthood was not
mere policy, lleligion and piety had become part and
parcel of his nature. " He was most sincerely devoted
to the Christian faith," writes St. Abbo. His earnest-
ness nowhere more conspicuously displayed itself than
in his endeavour to repair the havoc of the Mercians
in church and monastery. Wherever his predecessor
had left unrestored a broken altar or a dismantled
cloister, Edmund hastened to build it up again. The
clergy he supplied with sufficient and even abundant
means for the becoming performance of the divine
service, at the same time furthering among them to
the best of his power that spirit of ecclesiastical
discipline and piety which the troubles of the
time had so seriously impaired. While, however,
no one had a loftier idea than King Edmund of
the Church's authority, or the influence it should
exert in a kingdom, his frank and candid nature re-
volted from anything like hypocrisy or dissimulation,
and the insincere could never count on his sympathy
or protection. The annals of his country proclaim him
" conspicuous in Christ and in his Church,"2 the "Fidei
Christianae cultor," — " the promoter of the faith of
Christ "z "He was raised up by God," exclaims St.
Abbo in the office for his feast, " to be the defender of
His Church." Even beyond the limits of his own king-

1 -'Divinae legis apprime teoax, et subclitorum felicitatis studiosis-
simus, omnium sibi amorem ac venerationem conciliavit," Harl.
MS. 2802.

2 Harl. MS. 2S02. 3 Hist. Eliensis, Angl. Christiana Soc., p. 79.

78 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

dom lie advanced the cause of God and religion.
By his presence at the council of Winchester he sup-
ported its charter of gifts to the monks and clergy ;
and later on under the walls of Nottingham he
pleaded with his brother monarchs for the abbey of
Croyland. Finally, in defence of the altar and for the
faith of Christ he generously laid down his life,
st. Edmund's The court of this Christian king presented a pattern

court.

to princes. At early dawn the king and his attendants
paid their first homage to their common Master and
Lord by assisting at the holy sacrifice. During the
day the law of God ruled the household. Even rough
warriors, moved by the example of their youthful
sovereign, made it their first endeavour to give God due
reverence. Xo loud voice of rioting or dissipation
disturbed the royal halls. No oath or quarrel broke the
harmony in its precincts, for all feared the king's
displeasure as much as they valued his friendship.
Through Edmund's influence, love of truth, generosity
to the needv, gentleness, moderation of language

•/ * o o o

reigned in the palace. The words of Venerable Bede
admirably describe the East Anglians under St.
Edmund's government. "Departing from the rude
and boorish manners of their ancestors," he writes,
"they began to be exceedingly civilized and polite."
So, when some of them settled in Hunstanton, the
name of the place memorialized their gentleness of
temper no less than their bravery. The holy king
according to Eoger of Wendover,1 instructed his
attendants in every grace of speech and behaviour ;
and, in order to preserve the internal tranquillity of his
kingdom and defend it, if necessary, from external
attacks, he trained all his thanes in strict military
discipline. With one stroke of the pen Matthew of
Westminster2 gives a picture of St. Edmund's court

1 Bolm's edit., p. 193. 2 Bolm's edit., vol. i. p. 412.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 79

on the occasion of the Danish chief Lothbroc's intro-
duction to it. " Lothbroc was much pleased," he
writes, " by the graciousness of manner of King
Edmund, and by the admirable state of his military
discipline, and by the numerous retinue of servants
who stood by, whom the industry of the king had
made fully accomplished in all honourable actions and
in every variety of knowledge." And all that he
saw so fascinated the Dane that he earnestly begged
to remain with St. Edmund, " in order to be more
fully instructed in the king's discipline."

From St. Edmund's person and court flowed forth
charity to all in need. His poet sings :

" Against poor folk shut was not his gate,
His wardrobe open all needy to relieve,
Such royal mercy did his heart move
To clothe the naked and the hungry feed.
And sent he alms to folk that lay bedrid." !

" He was the father of his subjects, particularly of the
poor," writes Alban Butler, quoting from Florence of
Worcester, 2 " the protector of widows and orphans and
the support of the weak." Again and again our
annals address him as the " clement father," 3 the
" benefactor of the poor," the " kind father of orphans
and widows." There are, indeed, few recorded facts
to support this unanimous testimony of St. Edmund's
biographers. Incidentally, however, the saint's pane-
gyrists relate events which show that they do not
eulogise at random. The chance mention of Sathonius,
the king's old pensioner, the tears of the aged sword-
bearer, the eye-witness of his martyrdom, the devotion
of the Danish chief to the saint, the history of the
murderer Bern bear witness that Edmund was a just
ruler, a strong-souled Christian man, whose reign could
not fail to bring glory and prosperity to his country.
1 Lydgate. 2 Bonn's edit., p. 59. 3 Harl. MS. 2802.

80 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Lydgateon Summing up the merits of his hero's government,

polity. ' ' h the old Benedictine poet compares St. Edmund's king-
dom to a beautiful and well-proportioned human figure
of which the king himself forms the head. With the
two eyes of prudence and reason the young prince
watched over the whole body politic, taking heed that
no quarrel or dissension disturbed its action. No class
of society, no subject, however humble, no branch of
government failed to receive the holy sovereign's
attention. Edmund regarded his knights and warriors
as the hands and arms of the state, to whom it belonged
to defend the frontiers, to protect maidens and widows,
"and save the Church from mischief and damage."
As the soul which quickened and animated the fair
form, the king cherished " folk contemplatiff " — " sober
of their ly ving " — " expert in konning," who, by chaste
example, holy doctrine and the dignity of their sacred
office, " with lyght of virtu did his people enluinyne."
He considered the plough and the labourer as the feet
and legs of the state, without which it was helpless.

"Thus evry membre set in order due,

Ther was no cause among hem to compleyne :

Ffor ech of hem his olr'yce did serve.

The hed lyst nat at the ifoot dysdeyne.

Ther love was oon, they partyd not on tweyne ;

Ech thyng by grace so dewly was conveyed,

Hed of the membrys was nat dysobeyed.

And as the ruby, kyug of stonys alle

Ilejoyssheth ther presence with its natural lyght

Ryght so king Edmond in his royal stalle,

With crowne and sceptre sat lyk an hevenly knyght

To hyh and lowh moost agreeable of syght.

This woord rehersyd of evry creature

Longe might he leve the kyng here, and endure."

A gionous and Thus, to the admiration of posterity the youthful

peaceful reign.

monarch throughout his reign maintained, in a bar-
barous age and with subjects rough and lawless, that

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 81

happy state of tranquillity in which "justice and peace
kissed." l Few kings in early England so boldly
attacked the savage and half pagan spirit of the country
as Edmund of East Anglia. And he subdued it not by
physical force, but by the assertion of Christian
principles.

By his virtues, not by the sword, St. Edmund gained Through the

influence of his

his influence. Holiness as irreproachable as it was holiness.
solid and practical won the admiration and respect of
his people. They beheld their prince of an age when
the violence of the passions is strongest, and in a
position which placed him above the usual restraints
of the law. Yet, dead to all sensual pleasures, he led a
life upright and stainless amid the disorders of the
times. Awe-struck and subdued, they regarded him as
a superior being, and obeyed him as though he were
an angel from heaven. Unlike most princes, he needed
no vain display of pomp and ceremony to impress
his people. Both his person and his manner strongly
attached the nation to him :

" In his estat moost godly and benygne ;
Hevenly of cheer, of counsayl provident,
Shewyng of grace ful many a blyssed signe ;
» » * of wourthynesse the glorye,

And in persone passing delynnesse. '

Everyone,

" Lovyd hym of herte that lokyd on his fface. "

The best of monarchs have used similar powers of
fascination to enlarge their empire. Not so St.
Edmund, as Pierre de Caseneuve, his French biographer,
remarks. The noble and gentle king of East Anglia
was only ambitious to achieve the designs of Providence.
" Ever to godward hool was his entent." 2 He limited
his efforts to the simple every-day duties of a petty
1 Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. 2 Lydgate.

82 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

king, so long as God signified those to him. When the
divine Will called him to higher duties, Edmund just
as gladly and willingly obeyed even to the sacrifice
of his life. The invasion of the Danes required him,
lover of peace though he was, to take up arms in
defence of his religion and country. Like another
St. Michael, he unhesitatingly joined battle with the
enemy. No English king made a more gallant stand
against the Danes, none deserved better of Ids country-
men, none fell more heroically than Edmund of East
Anglia. But in all he designed and did he sought
not his own glory. With mind and heart he looked to
heaven. He gave no thought to self or earth.

CHAPTER V.

St. Edmund ami the Danes.

^Authorities— The connection of the Anglo-Saxons with their kindred on the conti-
nent is a well known fact of history. Of St. Edmund's individual relations
with Denmark and of his reputation there, Gaufridus, the compiler of
Bodleian MS. 240 and Lydgate give the fullest particulars. The chief
authority, however, for this and the following chapters is Pierre de Caseneuve,
an Augustinian canon of St. Sernin's basilica at Toulouse, who flourished in
the 17th century. His "Histoire de la vie et des miracles de St. Edmond Koi
d'Kstangle, ou Angleterre Orientale," printed "chez Pierre Bosc" at Toulouse
in 1044, is full of historic research, and numerous marginal references to the most
reliable English and foreign annals greatly enhance its value. In his dedication
to " Monseigneur Monseigneur rillustrissime et reverendissime Messire Charles
de Mondial Archevcque de Tolose," Caseneuve mentions tlie occasion which
suggested his writing the Life of St. Edmund, viz. the solemnity of translating
the sacred bones of the royal martyr from a sepulchre of stone to a reliquary
of silve", vowed to the saint by the men of Toulouse during a plague which
afflicted their city. " Heaven and the angels," he writes, "have hitherto for
many years been the only witnesses of the triumphs of St. Edmund. Now it is
mai^s turn." This learned French biographer of the English martyr king has
thoroughly sifted the history of Lothbroc or Lothparck, and satisfactorily
cleared up the many difficulties raised by Polydore Vergil, Turner and others.
Devotion and erudition combined make de Caseneuve a worthy chronicler of
the events of St. Etlinun 1's life. Most of our English chroniclers, and notably
William of Malmesbury and Matthew of Westminster, cursorily refer to the
other events of this chapter. For the question of Lothbroc the student should
further consult Richaid of Cirencester (Rolls Pub., vol. i. p. 333), Polydorus
Vergil (Caxton Publ., vol. 36, pp. 141-142), and Adam of Bremen. Two
•other valuable documents worthy of mention here are the "Vita et Passio Sti
Edmundi Breviter Collect i," found in the "Liber Coenobii S. Edmundi," of the
municipal library of Douai, and the "Vita abbreviata," in Abbot Curteys'
register, a cartulary now happily in the British Museum (Additional MSS. 7096,
14848). Hardy omits both these pieces in his " Materials," though they contain
several important incidents. The " Liber Cu;nobii Sti Edmundi," which was
written while William Exeter ruled St. Edmund's Bury (14l8-142P),contains on
the first page the stamp "BibliothecaBenedictinaAnglorum Duaci-S. Gregorins
Magnus." On the fly-leaf occur the names of its former owners, " Roberta
Woode,"the famous archseologsit. and " Johannis Smith! Londiniensis." In 1S36
.Sir John Gage and Thomas Stapleton came expressly from London to examine
this precious MS. Though full of matter of the most interesting character to
the antiquarian and historian, no savant has yet edited it. On page 30
begins the account of the " Translatio Sti Edmundi," in the reign of William II.,
to which reference will be made in chapter ix. On page 32 occurs the Life of St.
Edmund used for the compilation of this and the following chapters (see Cata-
logue of Douai MSS., by Dehaisnes, 543). The second, "Vita et Passio Sti
E Imundi Regis, abbreviata etsumptade prolixa Vitaejusdem Sancti," takes up
twelve folio pages of the register wlrch bears the name of Abbot Curteys, who
-ordered its compilation to prove the privileges of his monastery :— "Quia
quidam . . . nfflrmavit quod monasterium Sti. Edmundi ante edictlnnem
. . . . Decretorum 11011 fuit ab omni jurisdictione episcopal! exemptum ;
.... Pater Willielmus Curteys Martyrinm S. Edmund! compendiose
compilatum hie inseri fecit." King Stephen made the publication (edictionem)
mentioned in this note in Abbot Ording's time (1148-1150). Abbot Curteys,
however, traces the privileges of his abbey still further back, going to the very
bisis of its exemption, by giving an abridgement of the " Prolixa Vita," which
contained the first privileges granted to the guardians of St. Edmund's body.
The "Prolixa Vita," of which the MS. Bodl. 240 partly supplies the place,
probably perished in the 16th century. Abbot Curteys put forward the " Vita
Abbreviate" as the strongest proof of the privileges of his abbey. As no one
.•disputed its facts, it may be accepted as reliable.]

84 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

fameEdmu'uls UNDER King Edmund's firm yet gentle rule East
Anglia presented a marked contrast to the rest of
England. Anarchy reigned supreme in Northumbria,
internal troubles afflicted Mercia and Wessex. East
Anglia alone could boast of peaceful borders, a con-
tented people and an undisputed throne. Bound the
crackling fire in the halls of many a llafford bards
could sing of the peace and plenty brought to their
shores, and of the noble king whom serf and freeman
loved. Monks wrote his good deeds in monastic
chronicles which have long since perished. So the
virtues of " Blessed Edmund, of Christ's own man,"
spread their refulgence far and wide. l In that age
men travelled by land and sea, almost as much as
they do now, though without the same facilities. The
race was young and restless. Its people revelled in
any enterprise which took them beyond the limits
of their own narrow homes. In these expeditions
the conversation naturally turned to the young king
of the East Angles. England soon rang with his
praises. Even foreign kings held him in veneration.
The fame of his prowess and, writes Koger of Wend-

1 " Whoo can or may kepe cloos or hyde
A cleer lanterne whan that it is lyght,
Upon a channdelabre whan it doth abyde ?
Or of Appollo dyfface the beemys bryght ?
Or whoo kowde hyndre goddys owne knyght
This blyssed Edmund, this crystes owne man,
Thorugh many a kyndham but that his fame ran,
O^his noblesse thus was the repoort,
In Est yngelond how ther was a king
Off whoom the renoon, by many a strannge poort,
Was rad and songe his virtues rehersyng ;
His governance, his knyghtly demenyng
Which cessyd nat fro that it was be gonne
Tyl in to Denmark the noble ffame is ronne."

Lydgate.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 85

-over, " of his incomparable bodily size and stature,"
reached beyond the seas. Bishop Humbert in his
letters to his fellow bishops on the continent probably
•dwelt upon the high qualities of his sovereign. The
imperial court, also, closely watched Edmund's policy
together with that of all the English kings of the
period. According to the medieval idea the emperor
presided over the whole earth in temporal matters as
the pope did in spiritualities. Charlemagne acted on
this principle, when he supported Egbert of Wessex
or recognised Offa of Mercia so far as to treat with
him for the protection of English pilgrims. The new
emperor, Lothaire I., could not fail to recognise the
growing popularity of the East Anglian king, whose
youth and success often formed the theme of conver-
sation in his court. Especially Old Saxony, the land
of his birth, rejoiced in the renown of its young prince-
The happy issue of his expedition had filled the Saxons
with delight. They loved to talk of the success of
their bright and gentle Edmund, the choice of his
people, the glory of his land. Where " he reigned,
no man sought for justice and failed to get redress,
nor did any innocent man cry in vain for mercy."
Under his strong and just rule "a boy might drive
a mule laden with gold " from Lynn to Sudbury, or
from Thetford to Yarmouth, and "none dared molest
him." Thus they spoke of him in the land of his
birth.

On the north of Old Saxony lay Denmark, at that
time swarming with bold adventurers. The report of
their neighbour's enterprise and its prosperous result
spread rapidly among them. They regarded Edmund in
the light of a daring and fortunate adventurer, and in
their schemes of invasion or conquest naturally discussed
his method of success. Finding it Christian in every

86 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

detail, they were filled with an apostate hate, 1 and
thought of East Anglia only to ruin it. In Edmund
they beheld a Christian king whom their swords could
bring to the dust, and in his kingdom a fresh field for
plunder as soon as occasion offered. How terrible
a danger thus threatened Edmund and his people a
rapid glance at the Danes and their country will show.
Denmark ami By the Danes or Norsemen in the ninth century

the Danes, A.D.

were meant all the countless tribes that peopled the
Scandinavian peninsula, the islands of the Baltic and
present Denmark. They were of a kindred race to the
Angles and Saxons, but Christian civilization had
hardly yet affected them. Untamed and savage, they
possessed all the wild daring and barbaric habits of
the English who scoured the northern seas three
centuries before. A line of vigorous sovereigns was
now, however, striving to reduce Scandinavia and its
dependencies to some settled order. Their policy, as
well as an absurd law by which the eldest son inherited
the whole patrimony to the exclusion of the rest of the
family, forced thousands of free and independent spirits
to seek their fortune on the high seas. Once more
the northern ocean was darkened by the black ships
of pirate chieftains who despised storm and tempest,
and loved the sea best when the wind lashed it into
a fury resembling their own mad licence. Any
thriving country was considered lawful prey. Any
chivalrous Christian king was deemed a fit object for
their pagan hate. In hordes these Norsemen ravaged
the coasts of Europe, and slaughtered the inhabitants
Their ships when descried on the sea-line spread uni-
versal panic. With them invasion meant the confla-
gration of town and village, the slavery of women, the
murder in cold blood of men and children. They struck

1 Many of the Danes apostatised from the Christian faith about
this time.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 87

down the priest at the altar. They left monasteries
and churches heaps of smouldering ruins. Govern-
ment, arts, letters, religion, all lay crushed in their
wake. Having wasted one country, they steered to
another to repeat the same horrors. Winter alone
stopped their ravages. Then they retreated with the
spoils of the year to some safe harbour to give them-
selves up to rioting and lust. Throwing off their
lethargy with the spring breezes, they put to sea again.
In later times fleets of these pirates crowded up the
Seine, and, with Kalph the Ganger at their head, wrested
the provinces on both sides of the river from the
French king. Other bands desolated the banks of the
Tagus. Others sailed through the pillars of Hercules,
and founded a kingdom in southern Italy. But a cen-
tury before these events the fame of King Edmund had
attracted their thoughts towards England.

In the annals of East Auglia occurs an episode of ti°c Dane.
this period which illustrates the habits of the Danes,
and introduces several characters who play important
parts in St. Edmund's history. On that southern part
of the coast of Denmark which is washed by the north-
ern sea ruled a chieftain named Lothbroc, : or more
correctly Lothparck. Some chroniclers style him king,
by which they probably mean no more than that he was
a man of position. By piracy he had accumulated
great wealth, which, added to his blood connection
with the ruling house and his known cunning and
villainy, gave him an unenviable notoriety. He must
not, however, be confused with the more famous Eagnar
Lodbrog, who was put to death on the coast of North-
umbria in the year 805. 2 Both were Danes, both met

1 Gaufridus writes it Lodebrok (odiosus rivus), "loathed brook."
Leland gives Lothbrig and Lothbric ; Speed, Lothbroke, which
signifies, he says, Leather briche. The Douai MS. and Matthew
of Westminster spell it Lothbrocus ; Lydgate, Lothbrokus.

2 Lingard. Butler says he met his death in Ireland.

88 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

a tragic death in England, both were avenged by their
sons. But Lothbroc never swayed the nation like the
sea-king Eagnar Lodbrog, who commanded the most
terrible barbarian fleet that ever darkened the northern
ocean, and bore down with thousands of savages upon
England. Neither did Hinguar and Hubba avenge
Eagnar's death, but his son Agner, whose name the
carelessness of north-country annalists has confused
with that of Hinguar. In fact, Eagnar's death occurred
upwards of thirty years before St. Edmund's birth, and
sixty before Hinguar and Hubba invaded England.
The identity of the Lothbroc or Lothparck of St.

lished under the -r, n n) i • j. • nn i_ i_i- i j i »i i>

name of Loth- Edmund s history is fully established by Adam of
Bremen. l " The kings of the Danes," he says, " who
infested the coast of France were Horig, Ordinig,
Gothafrid, Eodulph, and Hinguar; the cruellest of
them all was Hinguar, the son of Lothparch, who
wheresoever he went subjected the lives of Christians
to the most horrible cruelties." This notice of Loth-
parck, while it distinguishes him from Eagnar Lodbrog,
after whom he has been carelessly named, saves the
following narrative, strange as it may read, from being
considered a mere fable.

Lothparck's two Lothparck had two sons, Hinguar and Hubba, 2

sons Hinguar

and Hubba. remarkable even in that rough age for fierceness and
savagery. Of all the leaders who infested the coasts
of France, Hinguar held the palm for merciless cruelty.
His brother to other crimes added witchcraft. Un-
willing to settle down in their father's district, these
men chose a life of adventure on the high seas, heading
the most desperate crews of their fellow pirates in
raids upon the coasts of Europe. None could make a

1 Migne's Latin Patrol., vol. 146, p. 486, cap. xxx.

2 Gaufridus says, "Ex quo rivo [Lodebrok, i.e. odiosus rivus]
eraanavit . . tres, videlicet filii cjusdem Hinguar, Hubba, et
Wern."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 89

louder boast of the success of piracy. Unloading
their ships, they would ask : " Who is there that by
right or wrong, by craft or force, has gained renown
or collected treasure as we ? " l On one occasion they
spoke in this strain in the hearing of their father : " Is
there any living man, king or prince, on land or water,
as bold as we ? No one dares to meet us sword
with sword. Be we right or wrong, all yield before us,
ploughman and merchant, horseman and ship." Loth-
parck, swelling with envy, or perhaps, as others sup-
pose, repenting of evil deeds which had brought him
a remorseful old age, scornfully replied that they had
achieved no success comparable with that of Edmund
of East Anglia. " I know one," he said, " not yet a
score and five years old, who surpasses you by a worthy aTimwi, '"'
life as the sun the little stars. In England there
reigns a king whose goodness all folks commend. His
fame, so report says, extends all the world over. What-
ever your boast may be, his prowess transcends it as
the high moon the scudding clouds. His knights are
brave ; his government strong ; and yet he does no
violence. His prudence puts to shame your daring.
Not many years ago, a mere stripling here in Saxony,
he sailed to England with a few followers and won a
kingdom. What have you to show compared with
that ? You waste your life in crime which all good .

* Ami rebukes Ins

men execrate. King Edmund wins the love of high and so"Si
low by virtuous deeds." Stung to the quick by these
rebukes, and jealous of their rival, Hinguar and Hubba
determined to wipe out the seeming reproach. " Being
angry at their father's reproof," writes Blomefield, 2

1 Leland's "Collectanea," vol i. p. 245. Also Polydorus Vergil,
•Caxton Publications, vol. xxxvi. pp. 141-142 et seq.

2 History of Thetford, p. 28. St. Abbo writes : "Ad earn
(Inguar] fama pervenerat, quod idem rex gloriosus, videlicet
Eadmundus, florenti setate, et robustis viribus, bello per omnia
esset strenuus."

90 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MABTYK.

" they resolved to conquer St. Edmund or to kill him."
An unfortunate circumstance favoured their designs,
and gave an excuse to the two brothers for bearing
down upon the English coasts at the head of a host
of barbarians.
The legend of It appears that Lothparck, in his fondness for hunt-

Lothparck. ,, , .

ing, orten went alone with hawk on wrist to enjoy
the quiet sport which his age and country allowed.
Love of sport one day prompted him to embark in
a little boat which was moored in the river near his
settlement. He intended to hawk in the islands lying
just off the mainland, which at that time abounded in
every kind of wild bird. But hardly had he got out to
sea when the sky darkened, and a fierce and sudden
storm broke overhead. 1 For several days and nights
the wild billows tossed him to and fro, till finally
fortune, wind and waves cast him, half dead with
hunger and fatigue, on the coast of England. His boat,
driven by the wind up the river Tare in Norfolk, ran
ashore among the reed-grown marshes which gave to
the village in their midst the name of Eeedham, or the
hamlet of the reeds. 2 The inhabitants sighted the little
boat, and, on drawing it to land, discovered its occupant
prostrate and exhausted. With Christian kindness
they fed and tended the stranger, till at last lie
opened his eyes to find himself in the kingdom of that
Edmund whose goodness he had heard of and extolled.
Edmund was probably then keeping his court not far
from Eeedham at a town which had once been one of
the most flourishing in Britain and a residence of the
kings of Iceni. The Romans afterwards fortified it,

1 Speed writes (p. 398) that Lothbroc was on the sea-shore, and
his hawk in Hying for game fell into the sea, which made Lothbroc
go into his cockboat to save her ; and so he was driven out to sea.

2 This was, of course, when the cliffs watered by the Waveney
formed the old coast line, and before the sea had silted up the
long low land which lies between the Waveney and the sea.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 91

and from them it received its name of Caistor, castra,
or the camp. 1 Following the custom of the kings
before him, Edmund made Caistor one of his royal
residences. After his martyrdom the faithful built
and dedicated a church there under their holy king's
invocation, from which it received the name of Caistor-
St-Edmund's. To Caistor, then, came the news that
the tide had washed ashore a boat from Denmark,
containing in an exhausted condition a single occupant.

With St. Edmund it was a sacred custom to receive st. Edmun.r.s

reception of tin-

hospitably all strangers and pilgrims. He therefore stranger.
invited the hapless Dane to his court. Lothparck found
himself honourably received in the royal palace ; for,
though he concealed his real estate, the extreme
elegance and beauty of his person and his imperious
carriage made the king suspect his rank. Edmund
listened attentively while Lothparck related in Danish,
a dialect at that time near akin to English, the accident
which had driven him to the Anglian shore. His tale
finished, the Dane found the king a generous host.
When the tempest wrecked Eagnar Lodbrog, the
conqueror of Paris, on the Northumbrian coast, King
Ella put him to a horrible death. Very differently
acted the merciful and Christian Edmund. He treated
Lothparck as a welcome guest. Though his officers
whispered that the Dane was a spy, he charged them
to show him every courtesy. He took upon himself
the duty of consoling the stranger in his distress,
and promised him a safe return to his own
country. The pagan chief, on his side, was won
by all he saw in the East Anglian court. The Lothparck

tames at Kinj;

gentle yet manly bearing of the king, the prowess and Edmund's court.
skill of his knights, the light-hearted and cheerful
household, in a word the peace and order which reigned
throughout the royal palace wonderfully affected the

* Camden's " Brit.," p. 463.

92 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Dane's uncultured mind. So touched was he, especi-
ally with the king's graciousness of manner, that he
earnestly begged to be allowed to tarry some days at
the English court. Edmund willingly agreed. He
hoped to bring one more soul under the sweet yoke
of Christ. In the Danish pirate he saw a fit subject
for his prayer and zeal.

The longer Lothparck remained in East Anglia the
more was he charmed with its king and " with the
admirable state of his military discipline ; with the
numerous retinue of servants who attended him, all fully
accomplished in all honourable actions and in every
variety of knowledge," through the industry of the
royal master who had trained them. l To Edmund's
great satisfaction his pagan guest took a childlike
interest in his new life, and showed an undisguised
admiration for the civilized ways of a Christian
country.

He is murdered Noticing Lothparck's fondness for sport, the king
forest? es associated him with Bern, the master of the hunt, in
order that they might visit together the best fields for
game on the royal domains. Bern, though a skilful
hunter and clever falconer, soon discovered that the
Dane surpassed him. By the river, in the open field'
in wood and on plain, success equally attended the
stranger's efforts. Bern, whose chief duty lay in pro-
viding the royal kitchen with provisions, now had a
rival who anticipated his every exertion, and frequently
enriched the king's table with the rarest dishes. All
the royal household talked of the new huntsman's skill.
Only Bern kept a sullen and jealous silence. Envy
of Lothparck and an unreasonable resentment against
Edmund filled him with rancour. To such an extent
did feeling overcome him that one day in the hunt he
waylaid the Danish favourite in the densest part of

1 Matthew of Westminster.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 93

Heglesdune1 forest, and, coming suddenly upon him
from behind, stabbed him to death. After hiding
the corpse among the bushes and leaves of a
wooded dell, Bern blew his horn, assembled his hounds,
and rode home as if nothing had happened. One dog,
however, remained behind. It was a greyhound, a
present from the king, which the Dane had fed and
trained with affectionate care. Now it kept faithful
watch by its dead master's side, expecting him to wake
from his last sleep.

The day of the murder and the next the king Lothp

corpse.

remarked the Dane's absence m m the common table.
Again and again he made anxious enquiries about him.
To Bern all looked for an explanation. The murderer
replied that yesterday, when he returned home, the
Dane remained behind, and he had not seen him since.
Scarcely, however, had he spoken, when Lothparck's
faithful hound bounded into the hall. As the dog
wagged his tail and fawned upon them, especially on
the king, Edmund and his men concluded that the
Dane was not far off. With his own hand the king-
fed the animal, waiting all the time for the approach
of its master. He waited in vain. Having satisfied
its hunger, the hound broke away from the royal
caresses, and ran back to keep its watch by the mur-
dered corpse. No master appeared, nor did the dog
return. The king grew suspicious. Some whispered
that the spy, after finding out the secrets of the coun-
try, had gone back to Denmark ; others hinted at foul

1 Now Hoxne in Suffolk. No name in the geography of Eng-
land has probably gone through more changes than Heglesdune, or
illustrates more strikingly our tendency to shorten words. Egles-
dune, the eagle's dune or down, is written in different chronicles
Eglesdune, Eglesdene, Eglesdon, /Eglisdune, ^Eglestoun, Hegils-
dune, Heglesdune, Hogeston, Hoxtoun, Oxen, Hoxon, till in our
day it is written Hoxne. Alms, from eleemosyna, is perhaps the
only word that will bear comparison with Hoxne from Heglesdune.

94 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

play. Three days after the hound had first come, it
reappeared and whined piteously ; even the dainty
morsels from the royal table failed to console it. It
ate a little, then left ; this time the king ordered his
servants to follow the animal. In its track they
entered Heglesdune wood, and penetrated into the
hollow overgrown with brushwood, in which lay the
lifeless body of the unfortunate Dane, stiff and cold, the
pale face upturned to heaven, the eyes staring and
glassy, and the dead limbs partly covered with leaves.
The truth quickly reached the ears of the king.
Edmund was deeply moved. A crime of the blackest
dye had been committed on one whom he held in
favour ; the rights of hospitality had been disgracefully
abused in a Christian land ; a soul had been sent to
judgment without the baptismal robe. The king ordered
the body of the murdered man to be buried with honour,
while he mourned as for a long-tried and faithful
friend. Meantime inquiries were instituted to discover

The trial of Bern

th.> murderer, the murderer. Bern had last seen the murdered man,
and on him suspicion fell. The attitude of the dog
confirmed the evidence of his guilt. Being confronted
with him, the animal growled savagely, and with diffi-
culty could the bystanders keep it from flying at the
guilty huntsman. Still the evidence was not conclu-
sive, and Bern denied the crime. In doubt what
course to pursue, Edmund called together his coun-
sellors and asked their advice. At this time the
English were accustomed in cases of this nature to

refer the decision to God, by subjecting the accused
to some ordeal. They made him pass barefoot over
hot ploughshares, or pick up with his hands a red-hot
bar of iron, or plunge the arm in boiling water. Some-
times they threw him bound hand and foot into a lake
or river. If he came forth unscathed from an ordeal
either of fire or water, the hand of God was thought

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 95

to have determined his innocence. In the case of Bern
all agreed to leave him to the judgment and decision
of God. The legend states that the king's men, placing
the criminal in the very boat which bore Lothparck
to their shores, sent him adrift without sail, oar, rudder,
or food. There was little doubt of Bern's guilt. If he
were innocent, God would protect him.

Wind and waves carried the unfortunate man far Bem accuses

St. Edmuiiil

out into the northern sea. The legend does not re- of the murder

of Lothparck.

cord what dangers and perils he met with, but the
monastic chroniclers affirm that Divine Providence
brought him to the very shores of his victim's country.1
It is certain that he found his way to Denmark. The
Danes, recognising the boat, inquired after the chief
whose mysterious disappearance had excited the won-
der of the whole district. Bern answered with
apparently deep emotion. The storm, he told his
listeners, had cast Lothparck ashore in England, alone
and half dead. The inhabitants had taken him to
King Edmund, by whose command he was thrown
into prison, and afterwards cruelly murdered. On
hearing this, the indignant people brought the English
stranger before Hinguar and Hubba. He told the
same story to them. Willingly would the two pirates
listen to any accusation against a foreign prince. It
gave a colour of justice to their pillaging expeditions.
Although they had every reason to disbelieve the
charge of murder against Edmund, yet they determined
to discover from Bern where their father really was.
For this end they put the informer to the torture as

1 An extraordinary instance of a boat and its occupant drifting
to shores hundreds of miles away has occurred in our own day,
in spite of skill in navigation and the frequent traffic on the high
seas. The newspapers of the second week of February, 1886, gave
the history of the Columbine, a fishing-smack, which drifted for
eight days from Scotland to Norway with one poor creature on
board.

96 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

a spy and traitor. Full of malice, Bern maintained
his former statement. King Edmund, lie called the
Christian God to witness, had slain their father out
of hatred to their race.

"'H/ngul?anan -^o P611 can describe the savage fury and grief which
now took possession of Lothparck's sons. Passion to
avenge their father's death intensified all the
hate which his former reproofs had engendered.
They solemnly swore to do all the mischief possi-
ble to King Edmund and his subjects. Their
sisters wove a sacred banner to place at the head
of their forces and inspirit them in the fight.
Without delay the two brothers sent messengers
throughout the neighbouring districts to spread the
story and to rouse the indignation of the country-
They called upon other Danish leaders to join their
expedition. Adventurers of every class quickly nocked
to their standard, and Lothparck's sons enrolled them
without hesitation in the formidable army which was
soon mustered to punish the murderers of their father.
Thus, adds St. Abbo, commenting on God's employ-
ment of the wicked for the greater glory of the just,
" Edmund, eminently adorned with good deeds in the
sight of Christ and His Church, like holy Job was des-
tined to undergo a trial of his patience at the hands of
the enemy of the human race, who envies the good
in proportion to the perversity of his own will. There-
fore by divine permission he excited his agents
Hinguar and Hubba to force the holy king, if possible,
to break out in impatient murmuring, and, by depriv-
ing him of all things, to make him in despair curse
God and die."

CHAPTER VI.
The Struggle with the Norsemen.

{.Authorities— Our principal historians only cursorily refer to the part which St.
Edmund played in the English resistance of the Danes or Norsemen, though
it is among the bravest in our annals. Most English chroniclers, however, in
describing the terrible conflict with Hinguar and Hubba, give the prominent
place to Edmund of East Anglia. His courageous stand, crowned by his
martyrdom, forms the striking event of that destructive invasion. Ethel-
werd's Chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Asser, a contemporary writer,
Richard of Cirencester, Matthew of Westminster, William of Malmesbury,
Ingulph of Croyland, the Histories of Ely, Peterborough and Ramsey, all
speak of St. Edmund's part in the struggle. The biographies of the saint
enter into the minutest details. Of these the principal are the Douai MS.,
the " Vita Abbreviata " of Curteys' Register, the Bodleian MS. 240, and Pierre
de Caseneuve's History. Abbo gives a picturesque account of the Danes and
of the parley between their leader and St. Edmund. Leland, Blomefield in
his "History of Thetford," Speed, Camden, and others, borrow their
narratives from the above.]

HINGUAR and his brother had now some shadow of a The causes ot

the invasion

reason for attacking their rival of Last Anglia. The or A.D. sos.
murder of their sire gave a colouring of justice to their
undertaking; and no difficulty arose in drawing the
wildest and most daring adventurers to their standard,
for vengeance and greed of plunder equally attracted
them. The descent upon England thus promised to
become an easy task.

Besides the murder of Lothparck. another event The dissensions

in Northumbria.

gave Hinguar and Hubba the aid and authority of no
less a personage than the king of Denmark, and swelled
their ranks with the best blood of Scandinavia. A
Wessex thane named Osbert had for some years dis-
puted the throne of Northumbria with Ella, its lawful
heir. While on a hunting expedition, Osbert called
at the castle of the nobleman Bocader, in whose
absence he and his retinue were most hospitably

98 SAINT EDMUND, KING AXD MARTYK.

entertained by the lady of the house. Before leaving,
however, he had the discourtesy to grossly insult his
hostess. Bocader, on hearing from his wife what had
occurred, pursued the guilty prince, and, supported by a
numerous party of friends, upbraided him to his face
before his whole court ; then, fearing the consequences
of his boldness, the outraged noble fled to Denmark,
where he had spent his youth. He was connected by
marriage with the Danish royal line, and he now urged
the king of Denmark, Goderic or Eric II.,1 to assist
him in avenging his wife's dishonour. He repre-
sented to him the distracted state of Northumbria,
the dissensions of its two rival parties, and the easy
King Goderic of prey it offered to Danish enterprise. Goderic, anxious

Denmark sup-
ports the to give some settled form of government to his rough
expedition

and disorganized kingdom, saw in Bocader's proposal
an outlet for the restless and unmanageable spirits who
threatened to ruin all his plans of reform. He deter-
mined to authorise the invasion of England. Hinguar
and Hubba furnished opportune instruments for carry-
ing out his policy, and their absence from Denmark
would be advantageous to its peace. Goderic accord-
ingly approved of the expedition, but induced them to
include the north of England in their scheme under
pretext of the Northumbrian incident. He even urged
the most powerful, and hence the most dangerous, of
his subjects to join their ranks. Thus in a short time
a host of twenty thousand men, under twenty jarls and
eight sea-kings, besides Hinguar and Hubba, was ready
to sweep down upon the western isles.
EariiiT invasion This was not the first occasion on which the savage

of the Danes.

Norsemen had invaded England. From the year 787,.
when the crews of three of their ships landed at
Dorchester, their raids upon the English coast had

1 Afterwards converted by St. Anscharius. See Butler, Nov. 20..

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 99

been almost incessant. Every year they planned fresh
expeditions more or less formidable. Twice they
ravaged Northumbria, and once they overran the
Isle of Thanet. Towards the end of King Egbert's
reign they annually attacked one part of Wessex or
another. In 832 they took and plundered the Isle
of Sheppey. The following year a fleet of five-and-
thirty sail entered the mouth of the Dart, and Egbert
had the mortification of seeing his West Saxons turn
their back to the invaders and fly. The next year
Cornwall became the scene of their ravages, and only
after a life and death struggle did Egbert succeed
in driving them back into the sea. A little later
their ships were swarming in the northern seas, and
literally surrounding the whole island. Not an inch
of the coast-line was secure from attack. In the
reign of Ethelwulph, Egbert's successor, one horde,
bolder than the rest, ventured into the fenny lowlands
of Lincolnshire, destroyed the Christian army under
Ealdorman Herebryht, and pushed its victorious career
through East Anglia to the Thames, in spite of the
slaughter of a considerable part of their force by
Ofta, the predecessor of St. Edmund. Three terrible
struggles at Rochester, Canterbury and London with-
in a few months, and the obstinate resistance of
Ethelwulph at Charmouth for a while stemmed
the tide of invasion. Attracted by plunder more
easily to be obtained, they turned aside to resume
their ravages in France.

For ten years they left England in comparative The invasion <>r

, A. 11. 851.

peace. On returning in 851, they found the English
kingdoms prepared to meet them. Even the clergy
had armed to resist these formidable enemies of the
cross. To the consternation of all, however, they
took forcible possession of the Isle of Thanet, sailed
up the Thames, sacked Canterbury and London, and

100 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

defeated the king of Mercia. Ealhstan, bishop of
Sherbourne, won a momentary triumph at the mouth
of the Parret, and then Ethelwulph, stimulated by the
warnings of St. Swithuri, bishop of Winchester, sum-
moned up all his courage, and by one supreme effort
overthrew the Danes with a loss greater than they had
ever before sustained. Again and again in the course
of the year the English repulsed them, first in one
part of the country then in another, so that this was
called the prosperoiis year ; and a second time their
reckless onsets ceased.

sion^^.iTses. These earlier Danish forays were, says our chief
English historian, l mere preludes to the storm which
broke over the countrv in the reign of St. Edmund.

*/ O

This third and most disastrous invasion of the Danes
occurred in the ninth year after Edmund's corona-
tion at Sudbury, in the eleventh after his landing
at Hunstanton, and in the twenty-fourth of his age.
Ethelred had just ascended the throne of Egbert,
and Burrhed reigned in Mercia. The army of 20,000
Danes, under the leadership of its ten sea-king.s,
came, writes William of Malmesbury, " to devastate
the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia."
Hinguar and Hubba had been entrusted with the
chief command, having under them the leaders
Halfsden, 2 Oskitel, Bagseg, Hosten, Eowils, Hamund,
and Gothrun, names but too familiar to the old
chroniclers. The perjured Bern 3 made the tenth sea-
king, and acted as guide to the expedition. The
twenty jarls or under-captains directed each a
thousand men under their ten superior officers.
The first year of This formidable host, with an equal number waiting

the invasion.

1 Lingard.

- Halfsden, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 878, was
a brother of Hinguar and Hubba.
3 Gaufridus spells his name Wera.

tl LIBRARY

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 101

in Denmark to follow, sailed for East Anglia. -"»e landing. i»

Nortnumbria.

Contrary winds, however, drove them north as far as
Berwick-on-Tweed, where they landed. They at once
began the work of destruction. They spared no
Christian, old or young ; men, women and children
were indiscriminately slaughtered. Churches and
monasteries, the special objects of their hate, were
given to the names. Wherever they marched, the
barbarians left behind a wilderness of black ruins
and blazing homesteads.

At the approach of winter the greater number Hmguar'makes

for EastfAnglia.

collected their spoil and fortified themselves in
the north with the intention of wintering ; but
Hinguar, in his thirst for revenge, pushed south-
wards to East Anglia. He carried with him the
famous Eeafan, or standard of the Raven, which
the three daughters of Lothparck had woven for
their brothers in one moon-tide. Wherever the two
chieftains marched, this banner went before them. 1
Previous to every battle they observed if the sable
bird embroidered upon it napped its wings, for in
that case it was an omen of victory ; if, however,
the bird hung motionless in the air, it betokened
defeat. To fight under this magic standard many
willingly put to sea again ; others, greedy of plunder,,
flocked from the main land. Thus, in command of
a numerous fleet, 2 Hinguar spent the year 866
coasting about East Anglia. He made frequent forays
into the country, principally with the object of cap-
turing horses, that his men might learn the art of
riding and be more equally matched with the English.
In a few months their knowledge of horsemanship

1 Asser.

• " Cum magna classe," writes St. Abbo, who has unwittingly
confused this maritime attack of A.D. 866-7 with the land
invasion of 870.

102 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

considerably increased their facilities for plunder.
Then, leaving his fleet on the shore under the care of
a few followers, Hinguar would land his forces, make a
sudden raid on the adjacent towns and villages, and
carry off whatever he could lay hands on. At other
times, with some seaport l for a base of operations, he
would carry war into the very interior of the country-
st. Edmund It was now that King Edmund showed forth the

takes the field. , „ ~. . . . TT .

courage and prowess ot a Christian warrior. Heathen
physical force," writes Carlyle, " Danes coming into
his territory proposed mere heathenism, confiscation,
spoliation, and fire and sword. Edmund answered,
that he would oppose to the utmost such savagery." -
The high-souled king would not suffer with im-
punity his dominions to be laid waste, loving subjects
to be massacred, and homes and altars to be razed
to the ground. On his coronation-day he had taken
in his hand the naked sword, and vowed to defend
the land and people whom God had committed to his
keeping. The presence of these sea-robbers on his
coasts called upon him to fulfil his vows. Without
hesitation he marched to meet the invader. He, too,
had his banner, upon which was worked the tree
of good and evil, under whose branches stood Adam
and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Above the tree
the Lamb slain from the beginning poured forth His
precious Blood to wash away the original sin and
to give new strength to fallen man. The device
taught both king and people not to put their trust
in sinful nature but in Christ, the victor over sin
and hell. 3 With this standard at the head of his

1 E.g. Lynn. See Arnold's "Memorials of St. Edmund's
Abbey," p. 9.

2 " Past and Present," p. 47.

3 St. Edmund's banner was well-known in after times. Like
other Anglo-Saxon kings, he probably used it in his royal
progresses as well as in the battle-field.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 10o

forces, Edmund hastened to the encounter. In skir-
mish after skirmish lie dispersed the enemy. But
each defeat made Hinguar and his men burn more
fiercely for revenge. Unable to effect their end by
force, the invaders had recourse to cunning. Here
again the valiant warrior of Christ, whose sword
brought so many of their comrades to the dust in
the open field, was equally able to meet them.
When they thought he was within their grasp, he
often took them by surprise and routed them with
great slaughter.

The "Liber Ctenobii" gives the following story of The story ..t
one of St. Edmund's expedients in time of danger.
On a certain occasion the enemy surprised the king
in one of his camps, l and so hemmed him in that
there seemed no means of escape. The siege was so
protracted that famine threatened both the besieged
and besieging. Edmund determined to keep the Danes
ignorant of his own probable distress, and thus force
them to disband in search of food. For this end he
ordered a fatted bull which was being grazed in the
fortress to be fed abundantly with clear good wheat,
and then straightway to be turned loose outside the
enclosure. The Danes seized the beast with avidity.
To their surprise, on killing the animal they found its
stomach full of fresh corn. Naturally concluding that
the beleaguered city could be in 110 want of provisions,
they raised the siege in despair. The king stealthily
followed them. Waiting till they separated into
foraging parties, he attacked them now in the woods,
now in the villages, and put half their number to
the sword.

On another occasion Edmund's knowledge of the The battle of
country, no less than his tactical skill, saved his person Banlby.1' '
from capture, and enabled him to inflict considerable
1 Probably Thetford.

104 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

loss on the enemy. Bern, being well acquainted with
the king's habits, surprised him with a few attendants
in the woods and low grounds of Lothingland, l better
known now-a-days as the Oultoii and Mutford Broads,
Hemmed in by the river Waveney, by the deep lake
Lothing and by impassable marshes fed by four
streams, there seemed no possibility of escape. Edmund,
however, knew the neighbourhood better than his
enemy. Crossing a ford near Barnby, known only
to himself, and afterwards called Berneford, 2 because
" the king escaped from Bern by it," he joined the
main body of his forces, surprised the Danes in the
marshes and cut them to pieces.
The Danes sue Beaten on every side, and dreading the approaching

for peace. . .

winter, the pagan leader now anxiously sued for peace.
He i'eared lest, if he continued the struggle, his retreat
might be cut off and his army demoralised. Edmund,
writes C'aseneuve, looked upon the prospects of peace
as a favour from God. Glad to give his harassed
subjects a brief respite, he willingly came to terms.
A treaty was made with conditions few and simple.
Edmund allowed the pagans to winter in the camp
which they had raised at Thetford, and to retain a
certain number of horses. 3 The Danes on their part
solemnly promised to discontinue their depredations
and to leave the country at the first approach of spring.
Edmund, however, still kept on the alert. He dealt
with a treacherous enemy, on whose word he could
place no reliance. He refused to disband his army,

1 The district of Lothingland consists of the N.E. corner of
Suffolk, and lies between the Waveney and the sea. It is sup-
posed by Blomefield and Speed to have received its name from
some connection with Lothparck, who was cast ashore in that
neighbourhood.

- See Speed, p. 198. Derneford, in the Lambeth Codex quoted
by Battely, is evidently a copyist's mistake.

3 Henry of Huntingdon, lib. v.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. 105

ordered the towns to keep watch, and openly gave
the Danes to understand that he would force them
to observe the articles of the treaty. The result
showed the king's wisdom.

In the month of February of the new year 8G7, The glorious

King Kilinuml

the third of the great invasion. l the Danes prepared drives tin-
pagans from

to leave East Anglia, but not without one more effort East A"Klii1'
to possess the country. Their final defeat quickly
drove them back to the north. The saint's biographers
thus relate the incident : King Edmund had made
Framlingham Castle 2 his base of operations through-
out the past conflict. From its battlements he kept
a look-out on the Danes, who still infested the king-
dom. Framlingham stood impregnable on high ground
defended by an impassable mere, which it overlooked.
In spite of promises and treaties, Hinguar resolved
to capture this fortress and, if possible, the king also.
It was a bold idea, but not easy to carry out with an
opponent so wary as Edmund. One day, however, the
Danes surprised one of the old pensioners whom the
saint at his own expense lodged and fed in the castle.
This blind and decrepit man, by name Sathonius,
was induced by a bribe, and probably much more
by the fear of torture, to betray a weak part of the
castle walls, which he himself in his younger days

1 The years of this terrible invasion are.'thus numbered by the
St. Edmund's Bury annalists : In the first year 865, they landed
in Northumbria ; in the second 866, they harassed East Anglia ;
in the third 867, they returned to York ; in the fourth 868, they
marched upon Nottingham ; in the fifth 869, they wasted Northum-
bria ; in the sixth 870, they martyred St. Edmund.

- Framlingham was a Roman fortress. It was rebuilt by Red-
vvald, and has since always been a place of historic importance.
The present strong and enduring walls are Norman work. From
the conquest to 1654 it was in the hands sometimes of the Dukes
of Norfolk, sometimes of the crown. Purchased of the Norfolk
family by Sir N. Hitcham, it was bequeathed by him to Pembroke
Hall, Cambridge. See R. Loder's "History of Framlingham."

106 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

had helped to build. Hinguar now watched his
chance. No sooner had his spies brought him news

After frustating <> , i , • , -i-> i • i ^i i

their treacher- ot the king s presence at Framlingham than he
ordered his men to advance secretly upon the place.
The king, aware too late of the treachery of his
grey-haired dependent, saw no escape but in a
bold flight. Mounting his swiftest charger, he
galloped out through the open gates, and past the
ambuscades of the enemy, who were hiding in
bands in the neighbourhood. Some of the Danes
saw him ride by, and, not suspecting who he
was, gave chase, in the hope of getting some informa-
tion about the king. As they shouted to him at a
distance, Edmund, like St. Athanasius on a similar
occasion, turned and answered : " Go back as fast as
you can, for, when I was in the castle, the king whom
you seek was there also." They quickly turned back
to Framlingham, only to find how easily they had been
deceived. The fearless king lost 110 time in collecting
his forces. Then, falling upon the baffled Danes, as
they were furtively retreating, he cut them to pieces
without mercy. " It was thus," records an old manu-
script, l "that through the various events of war, and
after great labour and exertion, the saint and his army
compelled the enemy to fly from the country." 2

The ti>ird. year The vanquished Norsemen made their way to North-

»t the invasion.

unibria, where, by money and promises, Hinguar had

1 "Liber Cccnobii."

2 Polydorus Vergil (lib. iv.), after correctly narrating this
incident, adds : " Some say that the king ran away, then, turning
round to meet his Danish pursuers, who asked him where the
king was, he answered : ' When I was in the palace, Edmund
whom you seek was there also. When I left, he did the same,
and God only knows if he will escape from your hands.' The
Danes, having heard from an interpreter that he had named God,
were convinced that he was the king, and took him prisoner."
This latter account is opposed to all the earlier and authentic
records.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYU. 107

kept alive the flame of civil war. It seemed at last vIcto^y'at^York,
as if Northumbria would fall an easy prey into his A-D-8°7-
hands. But the two rival claimants, Osbert and Ella>
on the former of whom it was nominally the object of
the Danish expedition to wreak its vengeance, now
suddenly laid aside their private quarrel, and united
their forces against the common foe. On the 21st of
March they surprised the two bodies of Danes outside
York, and drove them into the city. Then, making a
breach in the walls, they pressed into the streets. The
day was almost theirs, when the efforts of the bar-
barians, redoubled by despair, turned the tide of war.
Frantically the Danes drove the English back. They
slew Osbert and the bravest of their assailants, and
captured Ella. York was lost for ever, and with it the
independence of Northumbria ; and the barbarians
remained in possession of the whole of that province
south of the Tyne.

At the end of the year Hinguar turned his thoughts
once more towards the south. He feared, however,
to again attack East Anglia, for its defender was still
watching his movements. So, leaving a small garrison
at York, he marched with the greater part of his men
into Mercia, and, in the beginning of the year 868, took
possession of Nottingham, the strongest position in
mid-England.

Before attempting to dislodge the pagans from their The fourth year

of the invasion.

rocky stronghold, Burrhed, the Mercian king, begged ^ ^dmn0^,d at
the aid of the neighbouring princes. Never behind Nottinghain-
in the cause of God, Edmund, the brave and heroic
victor of the east, was the first to answer the call.
Following his example, Ethelred of Wessex and his
half-brother Alfred hastened to join the alliance against
the common enemy.

Under the walls of Nottingham Edmund induced He procures a

. charter for

King Burrhed to grant a charter of gifts to the abbey o

108 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

of Croyland. Burrhed's predecessor, ostensibly to
carry on war against the Danes, had plundered St.
Guthlac's monastery at Croyland of all the jewels
and sacred treasures with which former sovereigns had
enriched it. Earl Alfgar the younger, who afterwards
fell so gloriously in battle with the Danes, tried in
vain to have this spoliation made good. St. Edmund
now brought his influence to bear to save the great
abbey from future sacrilege. Ingulph gives the charter
in full which Edmund procured, and which is dated
the 1st of August in the year of our Lord 868, and was
signed in the camp at Nottingham. In the order of
signatures the archbishops, bishops and abbots take
precedence, a striking instance of the faith of the age.
After the spiritual fathers and guides follow the kings
and the noblest thanes. The royal signatures tell the
history of the deed :

•*• JEtbelreD, Iking of Wessej, 3- bave given ing consent.
4- aifrefc, brotbec of tbe Iking of "GQesser,, $ consent

thereto.
4- JSomunfc, Iking of Bast Bnglta, $ bave procures it.

Through St. Edmund's action Croyland thus obtained1
its charter, — a solitary example, indeed, of his
love of God's service, but one which shows at a
glance the influence for good which he everywhere
exercised. No doubt the saint's presence brought God's
blessing upon the Christian arms as Josaphat's did
upon those of Israel. The English kings quickly sur-
rounded the Danes, cut off all escape, and forced
the starving enemy to capitulate. Hinguar surren-
dered the town, only stipulating that he should be
allowed to remain till favourable weather enabled
him to march back to the north.
Tim Danes While the walls of Nottingham thus kept the

ravage the

North: main body of invaders from doing further harm, a

party of those left at York crossed the Tweed and

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAltTYR. 109

ravaged the far north. The dread which they inspired
may be imagined from the scene which they witnessed
at Coldingham. One horde had penetrated thus far
north, and attacked St. Ebba's Abbey. The holy abbess,
fearing nothing save the loss of her virginity, cut off
her nose and upper lip, and persuaded the sisters under
her charge to follow her example. The Danes, break-
ing into the cloister, beheld the ghastly sight which
these brave spouses of Christ presented. Amazed
and disconcerted, they put the nuns to the sword, fired
the abbey, and quickly departed to continue the havoc
elsewhere.

At the opening of the spring of 869, the pagans The ttftii year <>r

0 ^ . the invasion.

left Nottingham and joined their comrades in the north. The wasting or

Northumbria.

Then began the wholesale destruction of every great
abbey in northern England. l Lindisfarne, once hal-
lowed by the presence of St. Aidan and St. Ctithbert,
saw its monks seized and slaughtered. A few only
contrived to escape with the body of St. Cuthbert,
which now began its one hundred and twenty-six years'
wandering. Tynemouth Priory, St. Ben net Biscop's
twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, the latter
the home of Venerable Bede, Strensall, which St. Hilda
built near her own abbey of Whitby, all were reck-
lessly plundered and given to the flames. The
approach of winter alone interrupted the work of
destruction, and the exhausted enemy, sick of the
carnage, fell back on York to rest awhile.

With the spring breezes of the year 870, the sixth The sixth year of

- ,, . .,,.*". ,1 -VT i the invasion.

of this terrible invasion, the Norsemen began to move The final conflict

with Edmund.

again. Once on the march, they rushed southwards
like an unchecked flood, wrecking all before them.
Thirst for vengeance, whetted by three years of un-
bridled licence, urged the barbarian leaders to attack

1 For a saddening and vivid picture of these onslaughts of the
Danes, see Lingard's "Anglo-Saxon Church," vol. ii. c. xii.

110 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

again the dauntless Edmund of East Anglia. To his
presence Hinguar and Hubba attributed their partial
failure at Nottingham. That Edmund should calmly
and successfully defy them was a reproach which their
savage pride could not brook. Besides, he stood in
EasternkMOTcte. tne wav °^ any attempt at subduing Mercia and
Wessex. Gathering together their army, therefore,
they crossed the Humber into Lincolnshire, in direct
route for East Anglia. Only by one pass and that
on the west could the enemy without great difficulty
enter St. Edmund's kingdom. For that they made,
leaving the frontier of the country in ruin and waste.
Landing at Linclsey, they first attacked the rich abbey
Bardney. of Bardney, massacred the monks, and gave the

buildings to the flames. To oppose their progress the
ealdorman Alfgar gathered around him the bravest
youth of the land of Kesteven, but, though three of the
robber kings fell by his sword, he could not even by
the sacrifice of his life stem the impetuous torrent.
It was midnight when the news of Alfgar's defeat
reached the ears of the venerable Theodore, abbot of
croyiami. Oroyland. The cries of the messengers broke in upon
the office of matins ; the burning homesteads around
lit up the abbey windows with a lurid glare, and cast
a weird light over nave and aisle. Theodore hastily
collected the charters, jewels, relics and other treasures
of the sanctuary, and sent off the younger monks to
the neighbouring woods, while he himself with the
elder brethren and the children continued the chant,
awaiting the heathen approach. Abbot Theodore,
writes the chronicler of the abbey, as if describing the
great solemnity of our own day, sang^the high mass,
that terrible dawn assisted by Brother Alfget the
deacon and Brother Savin the sub-deacon, with Egel-
red and Wulric as acolytes. Hardly was the mass
finished and holy communion given, when the Danish

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. Ill

chief Osketul burst into the choir, and, seizing the
venerable abbot by his white locks, struck off his head
at the foot of the altar. Neither the looks nor the
fresh bloom of youth saved the boys of the monastery
from the sword of the barbarians ; the monks were
reserved for torture before death, and their corpses
were left to be consumed in the flames of the
burning abbey. In the light of the conflagration
of Croyland, the savage horde sped on to repeat the
same tragedy at Thorney in Cambridgeshire. Thence ihorney.
they hurried to Peterborough, the pride of Saxon Peterborough,
architecture, the patrimony of St. Peter in England,
founded by kings, enriched by generations of princes.
The inhabitants of the neighbourhood had sought the
protection of its thick and massive walls. And at
first it seemed as if the abbey, fortress-like, would
effectually resist the savage onslaught, but, a stone
having struck Hinguar in the first attack, the Norse-
men, mad with rage, redoubled their efforts and
captured the place. Thirsting for revenge, they broke
into the cloisters, and without mercy slaughtered the
women and children. Hubba with his own hand
immolated the abbot and eighty monks on one stone,
to avenge his brother's wound. They divided the
plunder, and then set fire to the abbey. For fifteen
days the conflagration proclaimed far and wide the
ruthlessness of the enemy who had passed that way.

The line of march to the entrance of St. Edmund's Ramsey.
kingdom next brought the Danes to Kamsey in
Huntingdonshire. From the ashes of Eamsey, they
marched to the Isle of Ely, in the midst of which stood Ely.
St. Etheldreda's abbey. The nuns had scorned flight ;
they relied for protection on the extensive marshes
and the deep and impassable lakes which surrounded
their convent. The sisters, however, without leader
or defender, could not resist their formidable foe,

112 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

who was not to be deterred by mere physical obstacles.
The intrepid virgins of Christ, the daughters of the
noblest Saxon families of England, were sacrificed to the
cruellest of heathen tortures, and the flames soon
devoured every building within the Isle of Ely.

See«wkeaf°f Leaving Hubba with ten thousand men to conduct
the sacking of Soham, and to deposit the accumulated
spoil for safety in the Isle of Ely, Hinguar pressed
onward to Newmarket Heath, the entrance to East
Anglia, hoping to take King Edmund by surprise. He
found the royal warrior of Christ ready to meet him.
A skilled general, Edmund had thrown up across the
heath the dykes known centuries afterwards as " Holy
Edmund's fortifications." l A trained army under
Ealdorman Ulfketul defended these two or three lines
of lofty earth-works, while the king with a second
army held himself in readiness to march either to the
seaboard of the east or to the woods and marshes of
the west, according as the invasion of the barbarians
might require his presence. Thus at the very gates
of the kingdom a fearless Christian band opposed
Hinguar's further progress. At first Ulfketul repulsed
the enemy, but overwhelming numbers step by step
won the ground, and after a protracted resistance

•rue ravaging ,.f the English leader and his followers were slaughtered

Kast Anglia.

to a man. The invaders rushed over their blood-
stained corpses into East Anglia. The mad war-cry
that broke in upon the stillness of night, the burning
villages that lit up the sky, the flying people, heralded
the enemy's approach. In addition to the usual acts
of violence and bloodshed which everywhere marked
the invader's passage, they now put to death every
able-bodied man who was likely to assist the sovereign

1 There were two— according to some, three— of these fortifica-
tions. See Matthew of Westminster, Bonn's edition, vol. i.
p. 457.

HAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTY It. 113

in his resistance. Thus they depopulated the greater
part of the north-west of East Anglia, and were
able to swell their ranks with the strong force which
they had left behind on the sea-coast or inland to
cover their possible retreat.

The Danish chief made directly for Thetford. the The sackage of

Thetforcl.

capital of East Anglia. l Messengers meanwhile
reached Edmund with news of the enemy's point of
attack ; but scarcely had he set out at the head of
a numerous force to hurry to the assistance of his
brave general, when he heard of Ulfketul's defeat
and of the barbarian advance into the heart of the
country. The Danes on arriving at Thetford at once
set to work to enlarge the famous camp, 2 now known
as Castle Hill, which they had constructed during
their former invasion. They now raised it high
enough to overlook the besieged city and to com-
mand a view of the opposite hills, from which direc-
tion they expected that Edmund's force would appear
against them. The city soon fell into their hands.
By stealth a few of them made an entrance into the
place, and to the consternation of the surprised
citizens it was soon enveloped in a mass of flames.
As the savages patrolled the streets in disorderly
gangs, they cut the throats of the children and
threw them on one side to die. No prayer moved
them to pity or stayed their knife ; they slew alike
the old and young ; matrons and virgins were
dragged to shame and death ; husband and wife sank
dying or dead at the threshold of their homes ;
children snatched from the breast were slaughtered

1 St. Abbo refers to Thetford, and not to Bures, as Arnold
suggests, in the words, "ab urbe longius," — the city some distance
from Heglesdune.

2 This artificial mound is 110 yards in diameter, 260 in cir-
cumference, and 110 feet high, with very steep-pitched sides.
See Rye's "Tourists' Guide to Norfolk," p. 114.

114 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

before the eye of distracted mothers. The impious
marauders sacrificed the whole population to the
cruelty of their bloodthirsty chief.
en At length, fatigued rather than surfeited with the

quires after

st. Edmund, carnage, Hinguar summoned to his presence a few
of the old serfs whom he considered unworthy of
his sword, and inquired of them the king's move-
ments. He knew by experience as well as by report
that " the glorious King Edmund, in the flower of
his age, robust of body, and skilled in all martial
exercises," l would not be behindhand in taking the
field. He wished, however, to make certain of the
king's strength before encountering him in battle.
Edmund was halting on his march at Heglesdune,
a place some distance from the capital, one of his.
favourite retreats, and a convenient position for recon-
noitring the enemy. Hinguar's prisoners, well aware
of their sovereign's movements, tremblingly answered
that the king with a large army tarried at Heglesdune
on the banks of the Waveney. Then, knowing the
royal character, they added that he would soon con-
tinue his march. The Danish leader at once called
in his marauders, who were scattered over the neigh-
bourhood. He hesitated to meet Edmund on equal
terms. His followers, he knew, cared for plunder
rather than fighting. They preferred the concealment
of the forest or the protection of camp and hill, till
they could make their raids under the cover of
darkness and without fear of opposition. Only
when taken by surprise or cut off from their boats
could they be brought to bay, and then they fought
with all the energy of desperation.

Andcontem- So Hinguar on this occasion cunningly thought to

plates his

submission. avoid a struggle. Inflated with success, he imagined
he could awe Edmund into submission by threats
1 St. Abbo.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 115

and promises. The history of his victorious career
in the north would, he flattered himself, bring the
royal warrior to agree to any terms he might deign
to dictate. Accordingly he resolved to demand half
the treasures of the kingdom, then, to show his
clemency, to allow Edmund to reign as his vassal.
The tyrant also purposed to force the saint to re-
nounce the faith of Christ. In course of time he
hoped that some pretext would arise for completing
the humiliation of his enemy and supplanting him
altogether. Thus he could spare his troops and
satisfy both ambition and revenge.

Full of caution, for he recognised the comparative
fewness of his numbers, and trusting to the power
of insolence and boast, Hinguar despatched one of
his roughest followers with a message to King Edmund.

When the messenger arrived at Heglesdune, and He sends an

insolent mess

was ushered into the royal presence, he vaimtingly to the saint-
represented his master's absolute power by land and
sea, the dread in which the nations held him, and
the recent submission of Scotland, Northumbria and
Mercia to his invincible hosts. He had now re-
turned, he said, to subject East Anglia to his sway
and thereby to complete the subjugation of Britain.
The envoy then peremptorily laid down the terms
upon which alone peace was possible, viz., the sur-
render by Edmund of half his treasures, and the
subordination of himself and kingdom to Hinguar.
The messenger proceeded to demand instant sub-
mission to these merciful terms. " If you resist,"
he insultingly added, " your obstinacy will let loose
upon your country our countless hordes. Your folly
will render you unworthy of kingdom or life. And
who are you," concluded the haughty pagan, " who
dare to match yourself again and again with us,
when the fiercest sea-storms impede not our oars,

116 SAINT EDMCXD, KING AXD MARTYR.

when the thunders of heaven and the river cataracts
refuse to hurt us and all the elements declare in
our favour. Submit to our leader, whom nature
herself obeys. He knows how to spare the humble
and to break the neck of the haughty."
The hopeless- . This bold ultimatum caused no little consternation

new of the

hmti*n can-*?. am0ng the king's attendants. Their case seemed
hopeless. Half the forces of the country had been
cut to pieces ; future defeat or victory would equally
ruin their cause, since the enemy was exhaustless,
and Hiuguar's latest policy deprived them of all
means of repairing their losses. Xo alternative pre-
sented itself but to sacrifice their Christianity and
accept the paganism of the invader.
The holy king Edmund alone remained calm and self-possessed

is calm and

in the midst of his followers. He bade the messen-
ger retire : then, turning to the aged bishop of
Elmham at his side, he asked what answer would be
expedient. The bishop, out of love for his prince,
instanced the example of some who had yielded to
the torrent by flight The saint with head bent in
thought and eyes fixed upon the ground listened in
silence. When the bishop had finished speaking, he
paused a moment, and in his humiliation a groan
escaped him. " 0 bishop ! " he murmured, " that we
should live to see this day ! Behold ! with drawn
sword a barbarous invader threatens our noble people
with destruction and our poor country with ruin !
Would that, even at the cost of my life, those of
my subjects who fear a struggle with the enemy
might save their lives for the present, in order to
restore one day our homes and fatherland .' " The
king thus bravely hoped, by a bold resistance on his
own part and on that of his faithful soldiers, to pre-
serve a remnant of his people, and save his country
from the enemies of his faith and liis God.

SAIXT EDMUND, KING AXD MARTYK. 117

Bishop Humbert entertained no such hope. He Bishop Humbert

presses flight.

knew too well the number and obstinacy of the
Norsemen tribes. "Who of your subjects will sur-
vive ? " he asked. Then he argued that, since for
five years the victorious hosts of the enemy, wherever
they met opposition, had spared neither town nor
village, neither rich nor poor, neither young nor old,
they would make no exception of East Anglia ; already
they had depopulated half the kingdom and levelled
its capital to the ground ; their swords were blunt
with the massacre of his soldiers ; now they
attempted the king's person and liberty. " O king I
half of my soul ! " pleaded the bishop, apprehensive
for his sovereign's life, " unless you bend to the storm by
taking refuge in the court of some neighbouring prince,
or by disgracefully surrendering yourself to a heathen
vassalage, capture with torture and death awaits you."

The alternative of martyrdom which Humbert put Edmund prefers

martyrdom.

before him presented no terrors to the strong-souled
Edmund. " The supreme wish of my life," he
fervently exclaimed, " is to die for my people. I
desire not to live and see the inhuman pagans slay
my beloved subjects."

The majority of the wise men of the realm ap-
proved the course of action suggested by the holy
prelate. The blood mantled to the monarch's cheeks
as he answered them : " What do you suggest ? That
I should tarnish my fair name by flight ? If I
defend not my people or abandon them in my own
safety, I am a traitor to my country, and my life
will be unbearable,"

He was equally immovable on the point of reign- Tb« saint re-
ing under Hinguar. "The Almighty Disposer of all»w
things be my witness," he said, "that under Christ
only will I reign. To Him I belong by baptism,
wherein I renounced Satan and his heathen followers.

118 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Be it said to the praise and glory of the Holy
Trinity, I have been consecrated to God by the
threefold unction of chrism : first, after receiving the
white robe of baptism ; then, by the pontiffs sign
of the cross upon my forehead at confirmation ;
lastly, when your acclamations and those of the
whole people called me to the kingly office in the
solemn rite of coronation. Thus appointed by God
and consecrated to rule and guide my people and to
bring them to Christ, I spurn to bow my neck
save in the divine service."

histc°ounSentoer ^e ma(^e li^6 difficulty about relinquishing half
heathenism. ^[s treasure. Would that he could purchase
peace and prevent bloodshed at so small a cost ! But
these unbelieving Danes told him that he must be
dependent upon them for the life and riches which
God had given him. They demanded that he should
rule his subjects no longer as God's, but as their
vicegerent. Was he free to do so ? What did his
Christian faith and conscience tell him ? — that it was
wrong to renounce the service of God and transfer
his allegiance to a pagan, and sinful to deny the
rights of his Creator and acknowledge them in
the creature. And who could tell what the enemies
of the true God, besotted with idolatrous principles,
might demand of him after he had become their
vassal ? He made up his mind to refuse Hinguar's
terms unless he embraced Christianity. From that
decision he swerved by no second thought. " I
have vowed," he said firmly, " to live under Christ
alone, to reign under Christ alone."

st. Edmund's Edmund's dauntless words kindled an unwonted

Hinguar. enthusiasm in the breasts of his soldiers. Political

prudence, or rather cowardice, no longer prevailed.

All resolved never to submit to paganism, and, if

need be, to die for God and their country. The

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 119

king now gently bade the Danish envoy approach
and hear his answer. " You deserve," he said, " in-
stant death for coming here with your hands reeking
with the blood of my people ; but, having before
my eyes the example of Christ, my Master, I will
not stain my innocent hands. Now, therefore, return
quickly to your leader and take him our answer.
His threats and promises affect us no more than
those of the evil one of whom he is the principal
follower. His insatiable greed may consume the
wealth of the country, and even break to pieces the
fragile vessel of our bodies, but our Christian liberty
we shall never subject to him. It is more glorious
to maintain our liberty, if not by arms, at least by
the merit of our cause, than to sacrifice it with
ignominy, and afterwards to incur the penalty of
treason if we should dare claim it again. We will not
make ourselves the slaves of God's enemies, or
allow impious superstitions to obtain in our land.
And, if the worst comes to the worst, from its
prison-house my soul shall fly to heaven free. As
you have treated my servants, you may treat me,
drag me from the throne, deceive, insult, load me
with blows, put me to death. The King of kings
will mercifully regard these sufferings and translate
me, as I hope, to eternal life to reign with Him.
Know therefore that, unless your master first become
a servant of the true God, for no love of temporal
life will the Christian king Edmund submit to him.
He prefers to remain standard-bearer in the camp of
the Eternal King!"

Like another Judas Machabeus Edmund now pre- Edmund fight*

the battle of

pared for battle. Bishop Humbert, won by the saint s Thetrord.
heroism, helped and encouraged him. The soldiers,
reassured by their commander's bold front, received
the order to arm with that quiet but resolute emo-

120 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

tion which the " Arm ! arm ! ye brave," of holy
Machabeus inspired. " How noble and necessary
a thing it is," exclaimed the king, as he mustered his
forces in order to continue the march to Thetford;
"to expose our lives for our religion and country,
and not to desert those whose defence the love of
God bids us take up ! " The Christian army soon
reached Thetford plain. The Danes had fortified
themselves in their huge and lofty entrenchment.
Edmund with his men crossed the river Waveney
and occupied the opposite hill. It was a dark and
bleak November morning when the two armies joined
battle on the plain between Melford and Carford
bridges, a place still dotted over with the Tuthill
and the some ten or dozen other mounds which
cover the bones of the slain. For seven hours the
battle raged, each party alternately hoping and fear-
ing. The royal saint showed himself a formidable
champion that day. His strong arm mowed down
the enemy like grass. The Danes fled when they
caught sight of his tall form and piercing eye.
Everywhere his sword seemed to glitter in the melee.
Many a Dane fell in that struggle side by side with
Christian martyrs.

As the early gloom of the wintry afternoon came
on, Hinguar and his men took refuge in their camp,
leaving Edmund master of a field red with the best
and noblest blood of England and Denmark. Sorrow-
fully and with a heavy heart the holy king gazed
upon the dead and dying that lay around him. He
mourned for his own soldiers, though he hoped to
meet them in heaven, for had they not died for the
faith of Christ? But he more deeply grieved for
the Danes, many of whom, it was well known, had
embraced the Christian faith in Denmark, and after-
wards abandoned it. Now it was to be feared that

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYU. 121

their lot would be cast with the rebellious and defiant
angels. The carnage on every side, the groans of
men passing to judgment, his own sword wet with
blood, so affected the saintly monarch, that he deter-
mined not to follow up his victory, but to retire to
Heglesdune with his few surviving men, there to
prepare himself |byj prayer and counsel for what might
happen next.

122

CHAPTER A7II.

St. Edmund's Passion.

[Authorities— The Bodleian MS. 240, in the absence of the " Prolixa Vita," is the most
complete collection extant of the Acts of St. Edmund and gives in full the
traditional last words and prayers of the saint which St. Abbo embodies in
the holy king's parley before the battle of Thetford. The monk of Fleury's
" Vita et Passio Sancti Edmundi" is, however, the most authentic narrative of
the martyrdom, though it omits some minor details, only to be picked up
here and there in other independent records. The Benedictine Lydgate puts
into verse all the touching details of the royal martyr's last sufferings, which
he gathered from the accumulated traditions and manuscripts in his abbey
library. Richard of Cirenctster among others has enriched his Chronicle
with a beautiful and finished history of Edmund's martyrdom. Mr. Thorpe
in his " Analecta Anglo-Saxonica," pp. 119-12(5, lias printed the Anglo-Saxon
" Passion of St. Edmund," MS. Bodl. X.E.P. 4. 12. f 62 xii. cent., as an inter-
esting specimen of the dialect of East Anglia. Of this Anglo-Saxon narrative
the British Museum possesses three manuscripts of the 10th and 12th centuries,
but two of them are mere fragments preserved from the fire of 1731. A fourth
copy, to which however the prefatory letter to St. Dunstan is wanting,
Archbishop Parker gave to the public library of Cambridge, where it may still
be seen, MS. I.I. 28, f 2U7. Mostly translations from St. Abbo, they serve
to show the popularity of the royal saint with the laity. Caseneuve, the
iast of the great martyr's biographers, gives a detailed account of St. Edmund's
passion, taken chiefly from Matthew of Westminster, from whom Cressy
boiTowed his description. English medieval chroniclers almost without excep-
tion, and later historians of the 9th century also record the glorious mar-
tyrdom of " Blessed King Edmund of East Anglia " with more or less detail.

st. Edmund ON his way back to Heglesdune with the remnant of
his army, Edmund still pondered over the terrible
bloodshed in which he had taken so active and yet
so unwilling a part. Had not the voice of conscience
bidden him defend the trust which God had com-
mitted to his keeping ? Had not duty called upon
him to oppose to the utmost the relentless destroyer
of the homes and altars of his country ? God, he
well knew, hated the unnecessary spilling of blood,
but only in the service of the God of Armies had
he carried war into the camp of the enemy. Other-
wise, throughout his reign he had especially avoided

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 123

the shedding of blood, desiring thus to honour the
passion and the death of Christ, the remembrance of
which now. prompted the heroic desire to lay down
his life for his people. As our Divine Saviour
delivered himself up to the Jews to be put to death,
so he determined to likewise surrender himself to
his persecutors to die for his nation.

Shortly after his arrival at Heglesdune the news ^deJwn*
came of a fresh Danish inroad into the country. people*
Hubba, having completed the destruction of Ely and
Soham, had set out with his army to relieve his
brother at Thetford and to aid him in the subjuga-
tion of East Anglia. An additional army, numbering
ten thousand men, was thus let loose upon the king-
dom. With such odds it would have been madness
for Edmund to continue the struggle. The flower
of his army had perished. The invaders had scattered
the brave men on whom he might reasonably have
relied for further help. Resistance and defeat made
the Danes more desperate, and the fresh addition to
their numbers placed the whole land utterly at their
mercy. One thought alone now occupied the saint's
mind. How could he most effectually protect his
country from further outrage ? How give it peace ?
How preserve for his people the Christian faith ?
The venerable Bishop Humbert again besought him,
if only for the sake of bringing back to the
land the faith of Christ, to save himself by
flight. But blessed Edmund knew that his flight He refuses to

fly.

would not save the people. The invaders would
only more ruthlessly put to the sword every
man who might help him to return. l His death
alone would end the conflict and stop the slaughter.

1 St. Edward the Confessor would often quote St. Edmund's
principle, " malle se regno carere quod sine labe et sanguine
obtineri non posset." (Brev. Rom., Oct. 13.)

124 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Hinguar, who entertained a personal hatred against
him as a rival and enemy, would be doubly
satisfied with his life. Never before had the
fearless blood of his race flowed more gloriously
through Edmund's veins, as with heroic charity he
simply said, " 0 Bishop Humbert, my father, it is
needful that I alone should die for my people, and
that the whole nation should not perish." " Generous
soul," exclaims Caseneuve in the enthusiasm of his
southern nature, " worldly glory prompted him to
seek death in the breach at the head of a few fol-
lowers ; on the other hand, the love of God and
duty to his subjects promised him nothing less than
eternity, should he imitate Him who renounced the
aid of legions of angels, and for mercy's sake willingly
met torments and death. I leave you to think
whether this soul, who from infancy breathed only
for heaven, would choose this world or the next."
The saint pre- Having made up his mind for that heroic act than
his persecutors, which none is greater, * Edmund prepared without
delay to meet his death. A little band of faithful
soldiers still clung to him. Before bidding them
farewell, he recommended submission to God's severity.
While explaining his own willingness to die, the
resolute martyr forbade further resistance and blood-
shed on the part of the rough warriors who would
gladly have defended him with their life. But, as
big tears rolled down their cheeks, he calmly dismissed
them to make their retreat in safety. Then, by the
advice of Bishop Humbert, he bent his steps to the
church, " to show himself a member of Christ." 2 He
unbuckled his sword and laid down his spear. " Lay-
ing aside his temporal arras," writes Matthew of

1 St. John xv. 13 : "Greater love than this no man hath that
a man lay down his life for his friends."
2 St. Abbo and Matthew of Westminster.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 125

Westminster, " he put on the armour of heaven."
Prostrate before the altar, with his forehead on the
pavement, he poured out his soul in prayer. " Sweet
Saviour ! " he murmured, " behold me a willing sacri-
fice. Whatever torments Thy enemies inflict I am
ready to endure for Thy name. By sufferings like
Thine I desire to come to Thee, my Jesus. Give
me firmness and strength. With the burden of a
crown I charged myself with the imperfections of
my people ; may my death propitiate Thee to remove
the scourge with which Thou afflictest them for my
sins."

Meanwhile Hinguar, no longer concerned at the The pagans tak.
slaughter of his troops, had left Thetford, and with
his whole army moved towards Heglesdune. The
king's resolve was kept no secret from the Danish
leaders. The Christian Edmund would not submit
to heathen masters, nor would he fly ; he would be
no party to the shedding of more Christian blood,
but most willingly offer his life for Christ's faith
and his people's safety. The pagan host, increased
by Hubba's ten thousand men, was actually surround-
ing Heglesdune, while Edmund, with his heart and
soul " fixed on Christ, his Saviour," knelt unmoved
before the altar with St. Humbert only by his side.
No defence was attempted. The gates of the palace
stood open. With orders to touch no one but the
king, the pagans rushed in, and with loud shouts
made their way to the church. l

1 An oft told fable falsified by .authentic history relates that
St. Edmund fled before his martyrdom and concealed himself
under the arch of a bridge, where he was discovered through his
golden spurs by a newly married couple, who betrayed him to the
Danes. This old woman's story is altogether opposed to historical
evidence, and at once dishonourable to our saint, who "yielded
himself to their torments to save more Christian blood," and dis-
ditable to his loving subjects. It would have been totally

126 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

sthEdmund.°f Tnen " tlie most merciful King Edmund" entered
upon a passion closely resembling that of our Divine
Saviour. Dragged from the church, as was his great
Exemplar from the garden of Gethsemane, bound
with cruel thongs, the innocent king stood before
the impious leader, as Christ stood before Pilate. l
TUG martyr's In this position of ignominy the Christian cham-
pion lost none of his royal dignity. Though his
bearing had nothing in it of the self-conscious hero,
it became a martyr, while it displayed the majesty
of a prince. Hinguar reproached the saint with the
murder of Lothparck ; he accused him of perjury and
the violation of those laws of charity which were
enjoined by the religion which he so loudly professed.
Hinguar's self-constituted tribunal had no authority to
oblige Edmund to render an account of his actions.
He therefore refused to answer before it or to make
useless declarations of innocence. He remembered the
conduct of Christ before Herod, and, conscious that God
at least was witness of his guiltlessness, kept silence.
His firmness -^y mockery and threats the pagans next attempted

to move him from his allegiance to Christ. " Living
or dead," he answered, " nothing shall separate me
from the love of Christ." Eejecting bland promises
he fell back on those eternal truths which he had
learnt in youth, and remained staunch and immovable.
Menaced with frightful torments and death, he boldly
addressed the tyrant : " My body you can break ; my

ignored in these pages, had not the bridge over the Golden Brook,
as it is called, been rebuilt to perpetuate the fable. It is to be
hoped that the true origin of the Golden Brook may be discovered,
and form an addition to the facts of history, without lessening
the reputation of one of the noblest and bravest of our Anglo-
Saxon kings, whose popularity East Anglians have ever lovingly
tried to increase by cherishing all the traditions of their country
regarding him.
1 St. Abbo.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MART YE. 127

soul's liberty you cannot bind. Triumphant, I shall
ascend to reign with the Eternal King." Eemoved
from every friend, and with none but rough soldiers
around him, the saint's firmness never wavered.
" Christ's faith," sings the poet of his life, " was his
mighty shield." Unshaken he stood, his eyes fixed
upon heaven, commending himself " unto the grace
of that Lord both one and two and three."

The Danish soldiers struck him with their cudgels The scene of ti.e

martyrdom.

even in the mouth l as they led him to the outskirts
of the wood close by, where the scene of his martyr-
dom was to be enacted. It was a cold and cheerless
Monday in November. A leaden sky hung over-
head, and the wind moaned through the gaunt and
naked trees. To an oak on the borders of the forest
the savages bound their victim fast, having first
stripped him of every mark of royalty. 2 In the
open space around, the stage on which the tragedy
of a king's murder and a saint's martyrdom was to
take place, stood several groups of the worst men
that the pagan army could produce. Some of these,
skilled bowmen, clanged their bows and whetted
their arrow-points ; others held in their hands whips
and clubs ; a few guarded the aged Humbert. Around
the open space had collected a crowd of spectators,
thousands of Danes, imbrued with the blood of
English priest and thane, and here and there among
them stealthily arid timidly some of the martyr's
own subjects. Thus many eye-witnesses, like the
saint's own sword-bearer, could tell in after days the
story of King Edmund's martyrdom.

At a sign from Hinguar the sharp lash descended The Danes

cruelly scourgo

on the shoulders of the innocent king. No spectator the saint-
dared utter a word of pity, and the saint made no

1 Some of the martyr's teeth were found wanting afterwards.

2 They left on him his camisium, or under-garment.

128 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

complaint. The silence was only broken by the
thud of the whips and a tearful voice murmuring,
''• Jesus ! Jesus ! " Hinguar, as he watched the signs
of pain on the saint's face, and the tender body
quivering under the heavy blows, again and again
called upon his victim to renounce the faith of
Christ. The glorious champion only answered by
invoking the holy name with greater fervour.
They make him Vexed by the martyr's constancy, the soldiers

a target for their J J

ceased their scourging to leave him as a target for the
sport of the archers. Soon arrow after arrow whizzed
through the cold, damp air, and unerringly reached
their sacred mark. Deep they penetrated the tender
flesh ; earnest and quick the martyr uttered the cry
of " Jesus ! " The bowmen skilfully directed their
shafts, so as not to inflict a mortal wound, but yet to
literally cover the martyr's trembling form with arrows,
so that, writes St. Abbo, he resembled " an urchin
whose skin is closely set with quills, or a thistle
covered with thorns." l A last time Hinguar pressed
the martyr with the promise of life and kingdom
"to turn from the faith of Christ and the confession
of the Holy Trinity." 2 Edmund's thoughts were then
far away from earth. He answered only by invoking
the name of Christ.
And finally cut Baffled by the king's endurance, Hinguar summarily

off his head. J

ordered his head to be cut off. With his own hands

1 "Jam loca vulneribus desunt, nee dura furiosis,
Tela sed hyberna grandine plura volant."

" Though now no place was left for wound, yet arrows did not fail
These furious wretches ; still they fly thicker than winter hail."
Weever's "Funeral Monuments," pp. 463-4.

St. Abbo writes: " Eum toto corpore sagittarum telis confo
diunt, multiplicantes acerbitatem cruciatus crebris telorum jacti-
bus, quoniam vulnera vulneribus imprimebant, dum jacula jaculis
locum dabant."

2 Matthew of Westminster.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 129

lie dragged the martyr from the blood-stained tree.
As if raked by iron teeth, the saint's flesh hung
gashed and pierced upon its frame. The red blood
soaked his garments and ran down in streams
upon the ground. With dying lips he prayed :
" 0 Lord, who of Thy high mercy didst send Thy
Son to earth to die for us, grant me patience unto
the end. I yearn to change this world's life for
Thy blessed company." l While he stood, as a chosen
victim separated from the flock, waiting for the

1 <SY. Edmund's Last Prayer,
" O Lord which of great benevolence,
Thy blessed Sone sentyst to erthe don,
To ben incarnat for our greet offence,
And for our trespace to make redempcion,
Upon a cros suffre dyst passyon,
Not of our meryte but of thyn hyh pyte,
Now grannte me, Lord, of Thy magnificence,
Off Thyn hyh mercy, and benygnite,
In my deying to have meke patience,
And in my passyon for to grannte me
By meke example to followe the charyte,
Which Thou haddyst hangyng on the roode,
Whan Thou lyst deye for our aldir goode.
Now in myn ende grannte me ful Constance,
That I may deyen as Thy trewe knyght :
And with the palme of hool persevannce,
Performe my conquest oonly for Thy ryght,
That cruel Ynguar which stant in Thy syght
May nevir reioysshe nor put in memorye,
Off my soule that he gat victorye.
U>i to tyranntys is not victoryous,
Though they Thy servanntys sleeu of fals hatrede,
Ffor thylke conquest is more gloryous
Wher that the soule hath of deth no drede,
Now blyssed Jesu for myn eternal mede
Oonly of mercy medlyd with ryght
Receyve the spirit of me that am Thy knyght."

Lydgate.

Beneath Lydgate's, Abbo's and others' language the line of
thought given in the text may be traced.

130 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

deathblow, the vision of interior light already refreshed
his soul. Boughly Hinguar commanded ; meekly the
king obeyed and stretched forth that consecrated
head which had so honourably worn the royal
diadem. While the martyr commended his spirit to
God, the executioner at one blow severed the head
from the body. The head rolled on the grass, arid
the body sank upon the ground. "And so," runs
the narrative of his passion, on the 20th of Novem-
ber, in the year of our Lord 870, " Edmund, a sweet
holocaust to God, purified in the fire of suffering
with the palm of victory and the crown of justice»
entered into the assembly of the heavenly court."
He had reigned fifteen years, and had not yet com-
pleted the twenty-ninth year of his age. 1
The martyrdom To feast their eyes upon another martyrdom, they

of St. Humbert. J

next led into the arena the aged Bishop Humbert,
Edmund's inseparable companion and counsellor.
Humbert had welcomed the young prince into East
Anglia, crowned and consecrated him king, supported
him in weal and woe. It was becoming that he
should share in his glorious triumph. Animated
with the courage of his royal pupil, and on the
ground red with his blood, the venerable priest
offered himself as a second holocaust to God. The
Danish sword struck off his bowed head and Hum-
bert hastened to receive in heaven the reward of
his long and faithful service on earth.
The pagans The pagans threw the two bleeding trunks and the

throw the re-
mains ofthe head of St. Humbert among the camp refuse, as prey

two martyrs

ramp'6 the f°r carrion birds or prowling wolves. St. Edmund's
head they kept, so that they might revenge themselves

1 William of Malmesbury writes that he was in the sixteenth
year of his reign, which he dates it from the autumn of 855, when
Edmund landed in England. As the saint is said to have been
born on Christmas day, he was not thirty years complete on the
day of his martyrdom.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 131

still further on the tongue which had so con-
stantly sounded forth the name of Christ. The
saint's characteristic sweetness, fixed on every feature
of the pale face, touched no human chord in Hinguar
or Hubba's breast. They tossed the sacred head
of their conquered rival from one to another with
.savage delight. At last, tired with their inhuman play-
thing, they threw it outside the camp. There it re-
mained, till, at the suggestion of the wretched Bern,
some of the horde carried it into the depth of
Heglesdune forest and secretly hid it amid the

tangled briars and underwood. Every precaution which they con-
ceal in the forest.

was taken to hinder the few surviving Christians
from decently burying it with the martyr's body ;
but, by the providence of God, a native Christian
watched the proceeding, and, though ignorant of the
exact spot where the pagans had thrown the precious
relic, he saw enough to afterwards guide a party in a
successful search.

132

CHAPTER VIII.

Edmund the Saint, " Kynge, Marty re, and Viryync."

[Authorities- -All the annalists of St. Edmund's Bury sing the praises of their
royal patron. The chroniclers of England's other greater abbeys join in the
chorus. St. Abbo especially, in his office for the feast of St. Edmund, brings
out the martyr's glories. Lydgate's " Life and Acts of St. Edmund the King
and Martyr," Harleian MS. 48:20, and more particularly his preface of twenty-
two stanzas, are one song of praise. Scattered everywhere throughout other
works bearing on the history of the saint occur innumerable encomiums of
our ancestors on his holy memory.]

rue martyr's THE panegyric of St. EcliiiuncVs virtues cannot be

IKinegyric. .

more opportunely written than now, while the events
of his life and martyrdom are fresh in the memory.
The extraordinary cultus afterwards paid to the
martyr king arose not from the many or few exploits
of his life, but from his strikingly Christian character.
Edmund in his life and martyrdom illustrated the
highest principles which can guide a man and ruler.
The Church placed before the English people this
rare model for their enthusiastic admiration and
imitation.

at. Edmund's Apart from the heroism of his death, posterity
would have justly pronounced Edmund a saint. Had
he never received the crown of martyrdom, the
Church would doubtless have venerated him as one
rivalling in beauty and holiness of character the
blythe and gentle Edward the Confessor.

From his earliest years God surrounded His ser-
vant Edmund with the signs by which He is
accustomed to distinguish those whom He designs to
make the special objects of His grace. Edmund was

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 133

a child of promise ; miraculous signs ushered in his
birth. In his baptism he received that Catholic faith
which alone can and does produce saints. Parents
who were fitted to educate children to reach the
heights of sanctity had trained him in the spiritual
life, and at an early age familiarised him with the
name of Jesus, the sign of the cross, the mystery of
the Holy Trinity, and the psalter, the foundation of
the Church's liturgy.

The psalms of David filled the young prince with HIS spirit or

l>rayer.

that spirit of prayer which was conspicuous through-
out his life. His thoughts were always heaven-
wards. His bright, calm and clear eyes had a depth
in them that told of sublimity of thought and fre-
quent communing with his Creator. Only a saint's
love of prayer kept him in retirement during a
whole year previous to his coronation, and so
often afterwards withdrew him from the busy high-
way of the world to one of those favourite retreats
where he could be alone with God. And, when the
end came, his persecutors found him kneeling at
the altar and fortifying himself by prayer against
the suffering and death which they were preparing
to inflict upon him.

He attained an equally heroic degree of humility. His humility.
He came of a proud and haughty stock ; in majesty
of mien, in strength of body, in grace of form, in
beauty of countenance he possessed more than the
ordinary endowments of his race. His superior
intelligence and shrewdness won him the favour of
King Offa ; his prowess and manly bearing gained
him the allegiance of a kingdom of warriors. In
the ordinary course these qualities of mind, accom-
panied with more than usual success in life, would
have made the young monarch self-willed and im-
perious. But those who knew him well have handed

134

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

His other
virtues.

St. Edmund'
three crowns

it down that he was affable and gentle to every
one, that by his kindly sympathy he won the
affections of all with whom he came in contact,
that he fulfilled in himself the words of the
Wise Man : " Have they made Thee ruler ? Be not
lifted up, be among them as one of them." His
humility was markedly displayed in his love of
counsel. Distrustful of self, timorous of being the
tool of designing men, he always sought the advice
of others before acting, though, when once his course
was clear, he pursued it firmly, yet without ostentation.

Love of the poor, earnestness in the pursuit of
virtue, devotion to the Church, self-sacrifice for duty
were among the other characteristics of this royal
saint, while his spirit of study and veneration for his
elders mark him out as the patron of young men
and students, and his bold and courageous defence of
his people, his brave resistance to the pagan inroad
rank him with St. George, St. Maurice, St. Eustace
and St. William as a patron of soldiers.

St. Edmund's chief glories are symbolised under the
figure of three crowns. With arrows through them
saltierwise these crowns form the arms of old St.
Edmund's Bury, and, unembellished, those of East
Anglia. They typify St. Edmund's kingship, martyr-
dom and virginity. Lydgate assigns them a heavenly
origin by picturing them as glittering upon the
banneret which St. Edmund bore in his hand at the
slaying of King Sweyn :

" In which [banneret] off gold been notable crownys thre,

The first tokne, in cronycle men may fynde,

Grauntyd to hym for Royal dignite :

And the second for virgynte :

For martyrdom the thrydde : in his sufferyng

To these annexyd, Feyth, Hope, Charyte.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 135

In tokne he was martyr, mayde, and king,
These thre crownys King Edmund bar certeyn,
When he was sent be grace of Goddis hond,
At Geyneburuh for to slew Kyng Sweyn."

In the concluding verses of his description of the
saint's death the poet again enumerates the dignities
represented by the three crowns :

"And with that woord he gan his nekke enclyne,

His hed smet of, the soule to hevene went ;

And thus he deyde, kynge, martyre, and virgyne. "

No further words are needed to show how St. saint Edmund

" Kynge."

Edmund wore his kingly crown. He regarded his
royal office as a trust from the King of kings, under
whom he undertook to administer mercy and justice,
and to whom, as to his superior Lord and Master,
he was prepared to render an account. He pre-
ferred to die than to rule under a master whom he
regarded as an enemy of God, and whose probable
exactions his conscience told him that he could not
submit to. Edmund came into closer contact with his His iove fol. i,is
people and country than sovereigns do now-a-days. pe°
His subjects numbered only a few thousands, and
his kingdom embraced no more than two or three of
our present English counties. His specific duties were
not therefore so very different from those of many
a great landowner of the nineteenth century. Carlyle,
while holding him fit to govern an empire, delights
to call him " Landlord Edmund." How did he live
this life to which his Maker called him ? How did
he discharge those duties of his station by which he
became a saint ? He had difficulties, but instead of
making them greater he overcame them in a "man-
like and godlike " manner. He rose to favour not
by rigour, but " by doing justly and loving mercy."
He walked "humbly and valiantly with God; strug-

136 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MART V 11.

gling to make the earth heavenly as he could ;
instead of walking about sumptuously and pridefully
with mammon, leaving the earth to grow hellish
as it liked." 1 And so it happened that, petty sovereign
though he was, he gained universal love and admira-
tion. Englishmen proudly ranked him with Con-
stantine, Theodosius and Charlemagne. East Anglian s
considered him the equal of Alfred the Great.
Christendom honoured him with St. Edward the
Confessor, St. Stephen of Hungary, St. Ferdinand of
Castile, St. Canute of Denmark, St. Louis of France,
as a royal national patron. On earth he was one
of those of whom it is written, "The kings of the
earth shall serve Him." 2 In heaven with the four
and twenty ancients he pays homage to the Saviour>
" casting down his crown before the throne and
adoring Him who liveth for ever and ever."3
aMart Eed'"UDd Martyrdom graces St. Edmund's brow with a second
crown. The St. Sebastian of England, St. Abbo
styled him, and the "Flos Martyrum," — the Flower
of English martyrs.

In the ninth century the Norsemen threatened
the Christianity of England with utter destruction.
Edmund stood forth as its defender, and in his
death bore witness to the greatness and holiness of
the name of Jesus, and to the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity. The pagans captured him, scourged
him, pierced him with arrows, beheaded him, but
they gained no victory. He held to his sacred
principles to the last. And his death gave the
Christian cause new life. His fearlessness roused the
flagging spirits of the English ; his martyrdom put
clearly before his contemporaries the interests at
stake. By his example our after kings were spurred

1 " Past and Present," pp. 45 et seq., edit. 1843.

2 Ps. Ixxi. 3 Apoc. iv. 10.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 137

on to an uncompromising resistance. Finally Edmund
prevailed ; for, when Alfred made peace with the
enemy, Christianity had won, and when the Danes
returned to rule East Anglia, they did so on the
terms which Edmund had dictated with his last
breath.

The royal martyr did battle also for the liberty The martyr of

J J English free-

of his people. The East Anglians always remem- d°'»-
bered him as their protector against slavery. When
king or noble attacked their liberties, they confidently
had recourse to " Father Edmund." So four hundred
years after the martyr's death the barons of England
knew no more appropriate place of meeting than
beside his tomb, to draw up under his auspices
the great charter of English freedom, the basis of
Britain's present constitutional liberties.

England honours seven royal martyrs: St. Eorpwald, Tiie chief or

•> J ' royal martyrs.

St. Sigebert, St. Annas, St. Oswald, St. Ethelbert, St.
Edward, St. Edmund. Of them all St. Edmund held
the first place in the devotion of our forefathers. The
poet of Eufford Abbey indicates his reputation among
his countrymen in the following lines :

" Utque cruore suo, Gallos Dionysius ornat,

Grsecos Demetrius, gloria quisque suis ;

Sic nos Edmundus nulli virtute secundus,

Lux patet, et patriae gloria magna sure.

Sceptra maims, diadema caput, sua purpura corpus

Ornat ei, sed plus vincula, mucro, cruor. "

As Denis by his death adorneth France,

Demetrius Greece, each credit to his place,
So Edmund's virtue doth our land advance,

A shining light, the glory of his race.
Crown, sceptre, robe, his brow, and limbs enhance,

But bonds and blood and sword still more his person
grace.

Virginity adorns St. Edmund in Catholic eyes saint Edmund

** '*

with the most precious of his crowns. William of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Malmesbury bears witness that, "though he presided
over the province for many years, yet never through
the effeminacy of the times did he relax his virtue." 1
Nobler than his kingly honour or his martyr's
courage was that life-long continency by which he
overcame the direst of his enemies, and graced his
person with the purest of dignities. So Christendom
revered him as pre-eminently the chosen and beloved
follower of Christ, another St. John the Evangelist.
Medieval England loved him as the St. Aloysius of
his country. In memory of his angelic purity, pos-
terity named his palace by the clear blue waters
of the ocean, a fitting picture of his own soul,
Maidenboure, or the Virgin Kinys House.* For,
sings the monk -poet, "he was martyr, mayde and
kyng." And "he deyde kynge, martyre and
virgyne."

In sublime language St. Abbo proclaims this
crowning glory of our saint, and its reward on
earth. " We can gauge," he writes, " the saintly
martyr's holiness in life by the spotless beauty, as
it were of a risen body, which his mortal flesh bore
stamped upon it after death. The Catholic fathers,"
continues the great abbot of Fleury, " extol those
endowed with the glorious gift of virginity by point-
ing out the singular privilege which is granted to it.
As they say, even unto death, these saints, by a
continual martyrdom of themselves, preserve their
flesh inviolate. After death they are justly recom-
pensed by the enjoyment even here of perpetual
incorruption. What is greater in the Christian
faith," concludes St. Abbo, " than for a man to
obtain by grace what an angel has by nature ?

1 Bohn's edit., p. 242.

2 Maiden is the old Saxon for a person of either sex who is
chaste, pure and unmarried.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 139

Hence according to the divine promise virgins
shall follow the Lamb wheresoever He goeth. l
Consider then for a moment what kind of man the
incorruption of Edmund's flesh reveals him to be.
In the height of kingly power, surrounded by the
riches and luxuries of the world, he zealously over-
came himself by trampling the petulancy of the flesh
underfoot. Let his household 2 in paying him their
human homage endeavour to please him by that
purity of life which his incorrupt members show
that he always loved. If they cannot offer
him the spotless flower of virginity, let them at
least keep the love of pleasure within them con-
tinually mortified. 3 That unseen and impassable 4
presence of his holy soul will be offended by the
foulness of any one of his attendants. Upon such
a one it is to be feared will fall the prophet's terrible
threat: In the land of the saints lie hath done wicked
things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord. 5
Moved for fear of that tremendous sentence, let us
implore the patronage of holy Edmund the king and
martyr, that he may obtain for us and for those
who worthily serve him the pardon of the sins
for which we deserve punishment, through Him who
liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen."

Finally St. Abbo celebrates the zeal, valour, morti- «*•

antipnon sums

fication and innocence, the principal virtues of St. "frtuesinartyi *
Edmund, in an antiphon which the monks sang in
ancient days in the saint's great abbey-church, the
holy king's purity and martyr- spirit being respectively

1 Apoc. xiv. 4.

2 "Familia."

3 St. Abbo is speaking to the first guardians of the martyr's
shrine, some of whom were probably married.

4 Illocabilis.

5 Ps. xxvi. 10.

140

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

symbolised under the appropriate emblems of the
white lily and the red rose :

Ave Rex gentis Angloruin,
Miles Regis Angelorum,
O Edmunde, Flos Martyrum,
Velut rosa vel liliuin !
Funde preces ad Domimim
Pro salute fidelium.

Hail, King of the Angles,
Soldier of the King of Angels.
O Edmund, Flower of Martyrs,
Like to the rose and to the lily !
Pour forth prayers to the Lord
For the salvation of the faithful.

141

CHAPTER IX.

The Translations of St. Edmund's Body. The Witnesses
of its Incorruption. The Martyr's Relics.

§ 1. THE FINDING OF THE MARTYR'S HEAD AND BODY
AND THEIR BURIAL AT HEGLESDUNE (HOXNE) ON MONDAY,
DEC. 30, A.D. 870.

[Authorities— The earliest record extant of the finding of St. Edmund's head is
that of the saintly and learned Abbo. He received it with the rest of
his narrative from St. Dunstan, who himself heard it from an eyewitness.
Other writers borrow from St. Abbo. William of Malmesbury "subjoins"
the "unheard-of" miracles as evidencing " the purity of St. Edmund's past
life," and Malmesbury, according to Archbishop Usher, is "the chief of our
historians." Leland calls him " an elegant, learned and faithful historian."
And Sir Henry Saville in his preface ad Gul. Malmsby expresses the opinion
that amongst all our ancient historians he holds the first place both for the
fidelity of his narrative and the maturity of his judgment. The Protestant
centuriators of Magdeburg (tern. 9. 3c. 12), brought face to face with witnesses
like William of Malmesbury, and unable to reasonably question their state-
ments, honestly and frankly write : " Edmund, king of the English, warring
against the Danes for the defence of the Christian faith, was at last overcome
and suffered martyrdom. His head, which had been hid amongst shrubs,
called out to those who searched after it." Protestant historians write to the
same effect. See Camden's " Brit.," f. 414, Holinshed, lib. vi. c. xii. Fox alone,
without adducing any arguments, rashly pronounces all the miracles fictitious.
Besides William of Malmesbury, Matthew of Westminster also gives a full
account of the finding of the royal martyr's head, and the monk Lydgate puts
the whole narrative into his flowing verse.]

AFTER the martyrdom of King Edmund the pagans The Danes

retire from

met with no further opposition. Secured from attack, Hegiesdune.
they at once prepared to settle down for the winter
in their saintly victim's kingdom. Hinguar and Hubba
broke up the camp at Hegiesdune and within a few
weeks moved their united forces to The t ford, where
Gothrun, another of the ten sea-kings, joined them
with a third band. Then the Christian people ven-
tured forth from their hiding-places in the woods
and marshes, and their first impulse led them to

142

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

search for the body of their good and gentle king.
They found it lying headless and unburied, exposed
to sky and weather, in the open field where the
champion of Christ had fallen. Reverently they
lifted the martyred corpse and with tears and sobs
Washed its ghastly wounds. But, when they could
nowhere discover the head, the plaint of the assembled
people became loud and heartrending.
The Christians A monk l in the crowd then opportunely related how

search for the . .

martyr's head, he had seen the Danes carry it into the thick or
the great forest ; and under his guidance they began
hurriedly to search the neighbouring woods. Had
the Providence of God frustrated the enemy's plans?
Would the long grass, the briars and the dense under-
wood protect the anointed head of their beloved
king ? Had the prowling wolves desecrated or de-
voured it ? With these thoughts in their minds
they anxiously sought for their missing treasure
under the gaunt bare trees throughout the whole
day. When the shades of evening fell, they sig-
nalled to each other by shouts or blast of horns,
so that every inch of ground might be examined
without being traversed twice. Suddenly in the
gloom they heard the voice of their beloved sovereign
crying, " Here ! Here ! Here ! " They stood still in
astonishment, and then hurried to the spot whither
the voice still summoned them. And behold, in

They find it

guarded by a a cjark olade of the wood, a strange sight arrested

wolf.

their steps. Under the shadows of the trees a huge
grey wolf couched 2 motionless, and between its
paws rested the king's head, placid and unharmed. 3

1 "Quidam nostrse religionis," writes St. Abbo.

2 ' ' Procumbebat. "

3 Butler states that a pillar of light revealed St. Edmund's head.
No chronicler mentions this fact. Oswald Crawfield picturesquely
describes " The Finding of the head of St. Edmund " in the first
number of "Black and White" (Feb. 6, 1891, p. 8), in order to

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 14o

As they ran up the wolf gently retired, as if its duty
had ceased.

Devoutly taking up the precious relic, with tears
of joy they bore it to the body ; and, though forty
days had passed, neither body nor head was touched
or tainted with corruption. The great wolf, "an
unkouth thyiige, and strange ageyn nature," followed
the sacred remains to the very grave. Then it went
back to the woods, and never again did the inhabitants
see so terrible and fierce a beast. l

explain a very fine engraving of the event in that journal.
He writes that after the search " by hill and valley, by river-
side and by the shore of the sea, the monk Anselm, a man
who had been much favoured by King Edmund, and the king's
squire Swithin continued the quest when the others gave
over. All that fortieth day they spent in the great forest, still
hopefully seeking for the missing head ; and towards nightfall,
coming to a dark glade in the wood, they heard a voice that
seemed to them to be the voice of their master himself, and it cried,
' I am here ! ' but they perceived nothing, only the shapes of
wolves that passed to and fro among the shadows of the trees, and
they heard the bowlings of these savage beasts. They pursued
their way to where the voice had spoken, and lo ! a strange thing
and against nature ; for there stood a great wolf, and at its feet lay
the head of the king with a halo of light above it, and the wolf
harmed not the head, but guarded it from his fellows ; and, as the
men ran up, went from them gently and left them. Then Anselm
and the Squire Swithin, reverently taking up the king's head,
bore it to the church at Hagilsdun." The saint's biographers
are silent on all names or details beyond those in the text.

1 The part played by the wolf has its parallels in sacred history.
In the presence of God's saints the most ferocious beasts have re-
gained that tameness which they showed towards Adam before his
fall. Over the corpse of the prophet of Bethel the lion stood and
touched neither him nor his ass (3 Kings xiii.) The lions
injured not the prophet Daniel (Dan. vi.) In the Christian
dispensation the wild denizens of the forest have equally shown
reverence for the saints. Pagan Rome beheld the fiercest beasts
grow gentle in the presence of the martyrs. A lion prepared a
grave for St. Paul the Hermit. A crow, St. Augustine and St.
Prudentius relate, defended the body of St. Vincent of Saragossa.
An eagle, as the Bollandists record (April 23), guarded for thirty

144 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The lifeless head St. Abbo tlius comments upon " the pleasing inter-
spoke.

vention of God " for the honour of his saint : " The life-
less head emitted a voice, and called upon all who
searched for it to approach. Kemark, the holy king's
head lay far from its trunk ; the organs of speech
received no aid from the sinews of the throat or
from life ; yet, while those who sought the head
shouted to one another at each step, saying, Where
are yon ? Where are you 1 the martyr's head re-
vealed its hiding place by answering, Here, ! Here !
Here ! And it repeated without ceasing the self-
same word, until it brought all who were in quest
of it to itself. The dead tongue formed a word as
though it were alive, showing forth in itself the power
of the God of language." Hallowed tongue ! Blessed in
life a thousand times ! Blessed in the torments of
martyrdom by Jesus' loved and oft repeated name I
The great Creator justly ordained that it should
bring honour to the saint to whom for His sake
it had brought death. l

clays the body of St. Adalbert, the martyr and apostle of Prussia.
Three eagles protected from beasts and birds the scattered pieces
of St. Stanislaus' body (Brev. Rom., May 7).

The following further history of the wolf is taken from a letter
of the vicar of Hoxne to the present bishop of Shrewsbury : "In
digging in some foundations at Bury St. Edmund's, a small stone
chest was found, which was supposed to contain the bones of a
child ; but it was soon seen that they were not human boms. They
were thought to be the bones of a dog. However, they were
collected and sent to London to be examined by the savants, who,
knowing nothing about the circumstances, came to the conclusion
after much consideration that they were the bones of a wolf ! —
doubtless the wolf which had guarded the king's head, and was
slain and afterwards (so to speak) honoured with Christian burial.
— Such is the story."

1 The Benedictine Lydgate thus describes the rinding of the
saint's head :

" The lord of lordys celestial and eterne,

Off his peple havyng compassyon,

Which of his mercy ther clamours can concerne,

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYR. 145

"Praising God, with hymns and canticles," the
faithful people placed the head with the body, andandbody
there, on the scene of his triumph under the shadows
of Heglesdune forest, laid the king to rest in a fresh-
dug grave. Over the mound they built a rough

Relese the langour and lamentacion,

Herde of his goodnesse ther invocacion

And gaf them comfort of that they stood in drede,

Oonly be grace to ffynde ther kynges hede.

With wepying teerys, with voys nioost lamentable

So as they soughte, walkyng here and there,

Wheer art thou lord ! our kyng most agreable !

Wheer art thou Edmond? shewe us thyn hevenly fi'ace,—

The hed answeryd thryes — heer — heer — heer :

And nevir cesyd of al the long day

So for to crye, tyl cam wheer he lay.

This hevenly noyse gan ther hertys lyght,

And them releve of al ther hevynesse,

Namly whan they hadde of the hed a syght,

Kept by a wolff forge tyng his woodnesse.

Al this consydred they niekly gan him dresse,

To thank our lord, knelyng on the pleyn

Ffor the greet myracle which that they had seyn.

They thoute it was a merveylle ful unkoutk

To here this language of a dedly hede.

But he that gaff in to the assys mouth

Suych speche of old, rebukyng in his dede

Balaam the prophete, for his ungoodly hede,

The sam lord lyst of his greet myght,

Shewyu this myracle at reverence of his knyght.

Men hav ek how in semblable caas,

As bookys olde make mencion,

How that an herte spake to seynt Eustac,

Which was first cause of his comision ;

For God hath poweer and juredyccyon

To make tongys speke of bodyes that been deed ;

Record I take of kyng Edmondys heed.

Of this miracle that Got lyst to hym shewe

Somme wept for joye, the story berith witnesse,

Upon ther chekys teerys nat a ffewe

Distillyd a don of inward kyndnesse.

They had no poweer ther sobbying to represse.

146 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

wooden chapel. The royal martyr lay buried in this
humble mausoleum, the best which his subjects could
raise at the time, until the ravages of war abated
and Christian piety, stimulated by frequent miracles,
translated the sacred body to a worthier shrine.

§ 2. THE FIRST TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY TO
BEODRICSWORTH (ST. EDMUND'S BURY) BY BISHOP THEODRBD
I, A.D. 903.

[Authorities— The Benedictine Abbo continues to narrate the history of St.
Edmund's body, but earlier records must have existed, froiii which later
writers copied such incidents as the cure of the blind man. The Curteys
Register and the "Liber Ccenobii " place this translation 33 years after the
martyrdom.]

The Danes In the early spring of 871 the Danes threw oft'

invade the

rest of England, their winter lethargy to begin once more their des-
tructive march through the length and breadth of the

Ttween joye and sorrow he signys out shewying
How greet entirenesse they hadde unto the kyng.
Thus was ther weeping medlyd with gladnesse,
And ther was gladnesse medlyd with weping,
And hertly sobbyng meynt with ther swetnesse
And soote compleyntes medlyd with sobbyng ;
Accord discordyng, and discoord accordyng ;
Ffor of his deth though they felte smerte,
This sodeyn myracle rejoysshed ageyn ther herte.
The folkys dide ther lysty dilligence
This hooly tresour, this relyk sovereign,
To take it up with dewe reverence
And bar it fforth tyl they did atteyne
Unto the body ; and of thylke tweyne
To gydre set, God by myracle a noon
Enioyned hem, that they wer made both oon.
Of ther departyng ther was nothyng seene
Atween the body and this blyssed hed,
Ffor they to gydre fastnyd wer so clene
Except oonly wher sotilly took hed
A space apperyed brede of a purpyl threed,
Which God lyst shewe tokne of his suffrance,
To put his passyon more in remembrance.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 147

land. But they still kept a firm hold on East Anglia,
which for over thirty years they made their base of
operations against the rest of England. Little success,
however, now attended their expeditions, for the blood
of their holy victim pursued them. Hinguar died
within a year, l and Hubba fled the country. On enter-
ing Wessex the invaders were put to flight in Berkshire-
King Ethelred and his brother Alfred cut them to
pieces around Reading. A few clays later, while
Ethelred knelt and refused to rise till the mass was
finished, Alfred, trusting to the uplifted hands of
priest and king, charged the pagans on the plain of
Ashdune and utterly routed them. Fourteen days
afterwards, however, they forced Ethelred and Alfred
to retire from Basing. Yet so conscious were they
of the change of fortune, that they sent for rein-
forcements from the mother-country. Alfred had to
contend witli a newly arrived army of Danes, when
he succeeded his brother after the Easter of 871.

With the fresh hordes from Denmark success re- The troubled

state of East

turned to the heathen arms. After innumerable Angiia.
skirmishes and battles by day and night, Alfred
fled before them. He was no match for an enemy
whose ranks, however thinned, were at once filled
up again. Defeat left no impression on the savages.
If thirty thousand, wrote Asser, were slain in one
day, others to double that number took their place.
When one fell, says another chronicler, ten were
ready to fill the gap. The supply from the Scandi-
navian wilds seemed unlimited. But in 878 Hubba
was sighted off the coast of Devon, and the return
of this man, one of the principal actors in the tragedy
of St. Edmund's murder, again brought the curse of
heaven on the arms of his countrymen. Acting on a
sudden inspiration, the Christians sallied forth from

1 Ethelwerd's Chronicle, A.D. 870.

148 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Kynwith Castle on the river Taw and slaughtered
twelve hundred of the enemy. Hubba met a misera-
ble death and lost the sacred standard of the Eaven.
Alfred and his party rallied once more ; and famine,
cold and fear drove the main body of the Danes
under Gothrun to sue for peace. At last strife
GotiminC's con- ceased over St. Edmund's grave. Gothrun arid
succession to thirty of his chosen followers met Alfred at Aller

St. Edmund's

throne. in Somersetshire and received baptism. Alfred him-

self stood sponsor to the Danish chief, and at the
same time acknowledged his sovereignty over East
Anglia. Thus Gothrun, or Athelstan, as he was
called in baptism, succeeded to the throne of East
Anglia without opposition. For ten years he laboured
to give tranquillity to the country and to promote
the Christian faith. Bishop Wilred, l the successor

1 The succession of bishops in East Anglia from the time of
St. Edmund's martyrdom to the removal of the see from Elmham
to Thctford (continued from pp. 17 and 55).

WILRED, WYRED or WILBRED, the successor of Weremund
in the see of Dunwich, according to Wharton ("Anglia Sacra").
and Godwin, became bishop of Elmham also after the martyrdom
of St. Humbert, and, uniting the two dioceses, fixed his see at
Elmham.

THEODRED I. or TEDRED, afterwards (A.D. 926) bishop of
London.

THEODRED II., called the Good, the second witness of St.
Edmund's incorruption. He died in 962. Blomefield, vol. ii.
p. 323, gives a copy of Theodred II. 's will from the White
Register of St. Edmund's Bury Abbey.

ADCLPH, ATIIULF or EADULF, occurs 963.

AILFRIC I. or ALFRID, in 966. Malmesbury places Athulp and
Ailfric before the Theodreds.

ATHELSTAXE or ELSTAN, was consecrated before 975.

ST. ALGAR succeeded in 1012.

AILWIN, EGELWIN or BALDWIN, succeeded in 1021. He resigned
and retired to Hulme in 1032. He was St. Edmund's " Chario-
teer," &c.

AILFRIC II., ELFRIC, ALURIC or ELRIC, surnamed the Black,

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 149

of the martyred Humbert, zealously seconded his
efforts to repair the havoc done to learning and
piety, and among other works of devotion revived
the veneration of St. Edmund in the humble chapel
at Heglesdune. But the efforts of both king and
bishop in the cause of religion and peace proved
fruitless, for a fresh danger threatened the kingdom.

A new adventurer, named Hastings, with countless The death of

Gothrun and
fresh trouble
in East Anglia.

followers devastated the English coasts and solicited fresh trouw

East Anglia to join him. Gothrun refused, but, on
his untimely death in 890, the East Anglian Danes
without hesitation declared for the new leader. They
made Norfolk and Suffolk their stronghold and together
with the Northumbrian Danes swelled the ranks
of the last invaders in every contest. In different
parts of the country Alfred drove them back broken
and shattered over and over again. They returned
hungry and disorganised to their wives and children,
ships and treasures in East Auglia, bringing with them
lawlessness and anarchy. These events kept the The ^^ of
whole country in a state of agitation and made a A'D' a*
translation of St. Edmund's remains impossible. Not
till 901 was there a lull in the storm. In that

died in 1038. He was a considerable benefactor to St. Edmund's
monastery.

AILFRIC III., surnamed the Little. He died in 1039.

STIGAND, having obtained the see by simony, was ejected by

GRIMKETEL, or GBUNKETEL, who held it together with the
bishopric of the South Saxons. Malmesbury, " De Gestis
Pontif.," says, " Pro auro Grimketel electus."

STIGAND after two years was restored, succeeding Grimketel in
both sees. In 1047 he took the see of Winchester and the arch-
bishopric of Canterbury, which he held till the Conqueror's arrival.
His successor at Elmham in 1047, was

EGELMAR or ETHELMAB, or , AILMAR, his brother, who was
deposed in 1070, and

HERFAST or ARFAST, who removed the see to Thetford,
succeeded.

150 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

year Edward the Elder, Alfred the Great's son,
ascended the throne of England with all the prestige
of his father's glorious reign, and with his own in-
domitable will to strengthen his position. He awed
East Anglia as well as the rest of Danish England
into submission. At the time Eric, the successor of
Gothrun, ruled East Anglia. He was its last
king, English or Danish. With Edward's help he
kept his country quiet. The troubles which ended
in his death had not yet begun to disturb the
kingdom. Ethelwald the Rebel had not yet " enticed
the army in East Auglia to break the peace." While
tranquillity, therefore, reigned throughout the land,
Bishop Theodred I., Wilred's successor in the see of
Elmham, determined to exhume the body of the
martyr and translate it to a more suitable shrine.
The cure of a ^ great miracle stirred up the feelings of the people

blind man draws

Ednmn°d"s graved au^ induced them to second with enthusiasm the
bishop's efforts. They had almost forgotten the martyr's
resting-place during the stormy time which followed
Goth run's death. Frequent miracles took place there,
as St. Abbo and Malmesbury testify ; some of the
faithful at times noticed a column of light hovering
over the shrine from eve-tide till dawn ; but the
general apathy and neglect continued, till the fol-
lowing intervention of Providence roused the slumber-
ing piety of the natives l to once more honour the pre-
cious remains. One night a blind man and the boy who
led him were slowly plodding through the woods
at Heglesdune. Unacquainted with the neighbour-
hood, apparently far distant from any house, the
boy suddenly perceived near them what seemed to
be a hovel or outhouse. Delighted to have some
refuge from the night and the prowling beasts, the

1 Malmesbury speaks of the " negligent natives." St. Abbo
puts the neglect down to the unsettled times.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 151

boy exclaimed, " Hurrah ! here's a little hut to
shelter us." " Thank God ! " devoutedly answered the
blind man. Boldly entering, they fell upon the
blessed martyr's grave. Though at first horrified at
finding themselves in a dead man's tomb, they preferred
it to the open unsheltered forest, and, presuming that no
one would disturb them in such a place, they fastened
the door and lay down to sleep, using the grave
for a pillow. Hardly had they closed their eyes
when a column of light illumined the whole place.
The terrified lad awoke his master. " Alas ! alas ! "
he cried, " our lodging is on fire." The blind man,
inspired by some divine presentiment, quieted the
boy. " Hush ! hush ! " he said ; " our host is faithful
and generous ; no harm will befall us." At dawn to
the astonishment of his guide the blind man was the
first to announce daylight, and was able to continue
his journey without assistance. The report of the
miracle soon spread. A man blind from his birth
had received his sight. God had manifested to the
world the glory and merit of his servant Edmund.
The East Anglians lamented their past neglect and
anxiously debated the propriety of removing the
body of their martyr king to a safer and more hon-
ourable shrine.

One place especially suggested itself as suitable Bishop and

j people deter

for the purpose, the royal town of Beodricsworth. mine to trans-

J late the body

Formerly King Edmund's own, it had descended to the ^°0rt,e1wlrics"
Etheling Beodric, who now offered it back to the saint.
The Danes had destroyed its church and monas-
tery of St. Mary, which St. Sigebert had founded ;
but some priests still lived there, who would
gladly guard the shrine if it were placed in their
midst.

1 " Villa regia qme lingua Anglorum Bedrices-gueord dicitur,
Latino vero Bedrici-curtis vocatur. " — St. Abbo.

152 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYE.

Accordingly clergy and people, thanes and serfs
st. Edmund. united to construct a church at Beodricsworth which
might in some degree be worthy of their king's
remains. The uncertain future forbade delay. Even
had skilled masons been forthcoming, they could not
risk the time required for a basilica of stone. So in the
forest rather than in the quarry they sought material
for the new edifice. The stateliest oaks were felled
and their trunks sawn lengthways in halves, which
the builders made of equal height and reared aloft side
by side to form the walls of the church. The bark
or rough side was left outermost ; the interstices
were filled with mud or mortar. Upon the four
walls was placed a roof of thatch. Inside this rough
but lofty and spacious structure l was hung the costliest
Bishop Theodred tapestry that could be obtained. When all was

takes up the

body, ready, Bishop Theodred and the whole clergy of

East Anglia, with great pomp of ritual and amid
an immense concourse of nobles and people, went
in procession to the place of sepulture, singing litanies
and psalms. With reverence they raised the coffin,
and, having removed the wooden lid, looked within.

And finds it A beautiful sight met their gaze. Where they had

expected to see a heap of dry bones lay the form
of their martyred king Edmund fair . and peaceful,
as if resting tranquilly asleep. The crowds who
pressed forward to look at the saint saw no wound
or scar or sign of decay on the body. " The sacred
limbs," says Malmesbury, "evidenced the glory of
his unspotted soul by a surprising soundness and a
kind of milky whiteness." The head was found
miraculously united to the body. Only a purple

1 A draught of this old church may be seen in the collection
of antiquities made by Mr. Martin of Palgrave in Suffolk,
together with some large pictures, manuscript books, and other
curiosities relating to the abbey of St. Edmund's Bury.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 153

threadlike seam around the neck bore witness to
the martyrdom.1 With tears and prayers the devout
multitude carried the body to the shrine in the new
church, there to await in the same peaceful sleep the
joys of the resurrection. In this manner took place
the first translation of St. Edmund, thirty -three years
after the burial at Heglesdune. Before another year
had passed, war2 broke out again between the East
Anglian Danes and the West Saxons, which ended
only with the amalgamation of East Anglia with the
rest of England.

§3. OSWBNE, THE FlRST WITNESS OF ST. EDMUND'S IN-

CORRUPTION. (BEFORE A.D. 925.)

[Authorities — The same as for Section 2.]

The registers of St. Edmund's Bury enumerate
with lawyer-like precision the several witnesses of
St. Edmund's incorruption. The devout woman
Oswene stands first on the list. "Oswene of happy
memory," says St. Abbo, "till almost our own days

1 A legend of St. Winifride V.M. relates how she was raised
to life by St. Beuno and bore ever after, as a sign of her having
been beheaded, a red circle on her skin about the neck. Butler
regards this miracle as having no foundation in fact, and seems
to think with Muratori that many stories of the kind first took
their rise among the common people from their seeing pictures of
martyrs with red circles about their necks, by which no more
was originally meant than that they had been martyred. All these
miracles are indeed easy to Omnipotence, but must be made
credible by reasonable and convincing testimony. In the case of
St. Edmund the proofs of the miracle are overwhelming.

2 This war fixes the date of St. Edmund's first translation, and
makes the 55 years of Herman and the 36 of Bodl. 240 improbable.
Herman gives 55 years, evidently thinking that Theodred II., and
not Theodred I., presided at this translation.

154 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

bore testimony to the sign of martyrdom around St.
Edmund's neck." She spent her days in fasting and
prayer in the martyr's church like devout Anna in
the temple ; and, as no one looked after the
shrine, its custody fell to her. By divine revela-
tion or " through excessive devotion," l this venerable
woman every Maundy Thursday of her life opened
the saint's coffin, and combed the dead king's hair
and pared his nails. " Truly this was a holy temerity,"
exclaims William of Malmesbury, " for a woman to
contemplate and handle limbs superior to the whole
of this world."2 Oswene carefully collected the
combings of the saint's hair and the parings of his
nails, and preserved them as priceless relics in a little
box which she placed upon the altar of the church.*

§4. BISHOP THEODRED II., CALLED THE GOOD, THE SECOND
WITNESS OF ST. EDMUND'S INCORRUPTION, A.D. 945 or 950.

[Authorities -St. Abbo, William of Malmesbury, the ' ' Liber Cceuobii Sti Edmundi "
and the " Vita Abbreviata " of Curteys1 Register.]

The two The bishop, Theodred I., who removed St. Edmund's

Theodreds.

body to Beodricsworth, was translated to the see of
London in the year 925. His namesake, Theodred II.,
called the Good, succeeded him. The Lambeth Codex
of Curteys' Eegister mentions only one Theodred, and
adds after his name, " postea Londiniensis." It then
relates how the same prelate opened the saint's coffin in
945, forgetting that he had left East Anglia twenty

1 St. Abbo.

2 "Chronicles of the Kings," Bonn's ed., p. 241. Malmesbury
looked upon the mere vegetable growth of the saint's hair and
nails after death as a great wonder.

3 Where they were kept with veneration till the sixteenth
century.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR. 155

years before. The copyist was evidently unaware of
the existence of two Theodreds, and that it was the
second who opened the shrine. St. Abbo and the com-
piler of the " Liber Co3tiobii " fix the identity of the
second Theodred by surnaming him " the Good," 1 a title
unknown in connection with Bishop Theodred of London.

After his consecration, Theodred the Good made St. The tu-st custo-
dians or keepers

Edmund's shrine his first care. Devotion to the royal gf^^"^^
martyr had again waxed cold, and his sanctuary be-
come more or less neglected. Heaven a second time,
however, roused the slumbering piety of the faithful.
At night-time a column of light again rested over the
shrine and enveloped the whole church in a halo of
splendour.2 Miracles, which had never ceased for long
together, became more frequent. With revived en-
thusiasm the people brought gifts and offerings to the
shrine, and a number of clerics consecrated themselves
to God under the special patronage of St. Edmund,
binding themselves by vow to the saint's service.3
Four of these, Leofric, Alfric, Bom field and Eilmund,
held the dignity of priests ; two, Leofric and Kenelm,
were deacons.4 Others joined in course of time, among
them being Adulph, who was afterwards the bishop
coadjutor and successor of Theodred. Their duties and
position closely resembled those of the seven keepers
of St. Cuthbert's shrine mentioned by Simeon of
Durham. With the bishop's sanction they served the

1 St. Abbo speaks of him as "beatse memoriae," which implies
that he wrote after Theodred's death in 962, though tenth century
writers applied the phrase to the living.

2 MS. Cott. Titus A. viii.

3 Leland, " Collectanea," vol. i. p. 248, places this event in the
second year of Athelstan's reign, A.D. 927. Herman implies the
same. That the institution of the keepers took place as late as
the reign of Ethelred (978-1016) as stated in IMS. Cott. Titus
A. viii. must be a mistake.

4 So Titus A. viii. Herman says that Eilmuud lived a priestly
life, and that Kenelm was a levite.

156 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

church, guarded the relics and administered the
property of the sanctuary. They lived on the
prebends and offerings l which the growing fame
of the saint brought to his resting-place.
Bishop Theodred Out of reverence for the martyr's body and to insure

desires to see

the martyr's its safer preservation Bishop Theodred decided to open
the coffin and satisfy his pious desire of gazing upon
the saint's face. A sentence of death, however, which
he passed, contrary to the holy canons, upon some
sacrilegious robbers made him postpone the fulfilment
of his wish till the year 945 or 950. 2 St Edmund's
principal biographer relates the whole incident with
the minuteness and picturesqueness of a contemporary.
" Though it may appear weak and trivial," says
William of Malmesbury, it furnishes " proof of St.

tory of the Edmund's power." The narrative runs thus:3 Some

robbers.

thieves, of whom there were many infesting the country,
attempted to break into the basilica in the silence and
darkness of night, in order to steal the offerings of gold
and silver and precious ornaments with which the faith-
ful had enriched the shrine. They were eight in num-
ber and men lost to all sense of reverence for the holy
dead. Supplied with ladders and all else necessary
for their purpose, they made their way into the
churchyard under cover of night. One raised a ladder
in order to make an entrance by the window, another
tried ] to force the bolt of the door with a hammer,
while some commenced to dig with mattocks and spades
under the wooden walls. As they thus endeavoured
each in his own way to force an entrance into the

1 In 945 Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, gave the first
charter of lands, &c. to the " family " of St. Edmund the Martyr.

2 945 according to Curteys' Register ; 950 according to the
" Liber Coenobii Sti Edmundi."

3 A similar story is told in the Life of St. Frideswide ; and also
of St. Spiridion by Sozomen the historian. See Alban Butler,
Dec. 14.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 157

sanctuary, the holy martyr fixed them immoveable
in their various postures and in the very places
which they occupied at the moment. One stood
on his ladder in mid-air ; another in the act of
difTcrino- held fast to his shovel and his shovel to

Ot> O

him ; another remained motionless, fastened to his
blacksmith's hammer. A supernatural power trans-
fixed them. " A pleasant spectacle enough," exclaims
William of Malmesbury, " to see the plunder hold
fast the thief, so that he could neither desist from
the enterprise nor complete the design." Meanwhile
the noise awoke one of the keepers of the shrine,
sleeping inside the church, l but an invisible power
held him speechless on his couch, and he could give
no alarm. When day dawned, it revealed the
robbers in the very act of sacrilege. The guardians
of the sanctuary bound them with thongs and led
them before the bishop's tribunal, where without more
ado Theodred condemned them to be hanged.

Here St. Abbo breaks out into a denunciation of Th
Bishop Theodred's sin against the canons as well as
against his sacred office of father of his people. He
did not call to mind, says the saintly writer, our
Lord's exhortation by the mouth of His prophet :
" Those that are drawn to death, forbear not to deliver "
from it. 2 And he did not remember the example of
Eliseus, who refreshed the robbers with bread and water
in Samaria and sent them back to their homes, not per-
mitting the king to put them to death, because he had
not " taken them with his sword." 3 There is also the
precept of the Apostle: "If you have judgment of
things pertaining to this world, set them to judge

1 This fact, given by St. Abbo, proves conclusively the existence
of the keepers of the shrine previous to 945. He mentions,
moreover, the "monastery " attached to the church.

2 Prov. xx. 11.

3 4 Kings vi. 22.

158 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

who are the most despised in the Church," l i.e. lay-
men. " So the canons forbid any bishop or any of
the clergy to fulfil the office of accuser, because it
is unbecoming for the ministers of heavenly life to
further the death of any man whatsoever."

" Theodred bitterly lamented his hasty action. He
imposed a severe penance upon himself, and for a
long time bewailed his sin. At last he earnestly
a!idd°afterwards Begged the people of the diocese to unite with him
opens the shrine, jjj a ^iree days' fast in order to avert the just anger
and indignation of heaven, which might otherwise
fall upon him. Our Lord, appeased by the sacrifice
of a contrite and humble spirit, granted him the
grace to dare to touch and raise the body of the
blessed martyr, who, though so glorious by his virtues,
lay buried in so poor and unworthy a sepulchre."
He examines the " Thus it came to pass," about eighty years after
the saint's death, that Bishop Theodred II., called
the Good, opened the coffin and " found the body
of the most blessed king whole and incorrupt, although
it had before been gashed and bruised, and the head
severed from its trunk. He touched and washed it ;
then, clothing it in new and most costly robes, laid it to
rest again in a new wooden coffin, 2 blessing God, who
is wonderful in His saints and glorious in all His works"3

§ 5. THE YOUTH LEOFSTAN, THE THIRD WITNESS OF ST-
EDMUND'S INCORRUPTION. (ABOUT A.D. 980.)

[Authorities — Leofstan is the last witness of St. Edmund's incorruption men-
tioned by St. Abbo. Spelman, in his "History of Sacrilege," dates
the punishment of Count Leofstan A.D. 880. This can hardly be correct,
considering that St. Edmund lay burled at Heglesdune in that year. More
probably 980 is the correct date.]

The proud noble With great reverence the religious of St. Edmund

Leofstan

demands to see watched over the precious relics committed to their

the body. £

1 1 Cor. vi. 4. - "Loculus." 3 Ps. Ixvii.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 159

care. Bishop Adulph, as one of their community,
further increased their devotion by his presence and
example. 1 No one doubted the holy martyr's influence
with God, attested by that beautiful and incorrupt
form which had been so recently seen. But a youth
named Leofstan, of a noble East Anglian family,
who was not born when Bishop Theodred opened
the coffin, hearing of the saint's incorruption, demanded
to see it for himself. The keepers of the shrine refused ;
the young man's attendants remonstrated. Proud
and self-willed, Leofstan insisted " on settling," as
he said, " the uncertainty of report by the testimony of
his own eyesight." Resistance to his wishes only
infuriated him, and he angrily threatened to use
force if necessary.

Fearing a disturbance in the very sanctuary from He sees it and

. is struck mad.

a man of such power and insolence, the keepers of
the shrine yielded and opened the coffin. 2 Leofstan
stood and irreverently stared into the face of the
sleeping saint. At the same instant God struck him
with madness and delivered him up to a reprobate
sense. 3 His father Alfgar, a holy and religious man
and afterwards a great benefactor of St. Edmund,
terrified at his son's crime and its consequent punish-
ment, finally disinherited him. At last, reduced by the
judgment of God to the deepest misery, Leofstan
died like Antiochus and Herod, eaten up with
worms. " Thus," concludes St. Abbo, " all recognise
the holy king and martyr Edmund to be not inferior

1 Godwin, " De Prsesulibus," p. 425, says Adulph was appointed
in Canterbury in 955 to be bishop of East Anglia, i.e. some years
before the death of Theodred II., whose coadjutor he was, which
occurred, says Yates, in 962. He joined the brethren at Beod-
ricsworth out of devotion to St. Edmund.

2 Leland, " Itiner.," vol. viii. p. 82b, says that Leofstan forced
open the coffin.

3 Rom. i. 28.

160 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

in merit to the blessed levite and martyr St.
Lawrence, whose body, as the holy father Gregory
relates, being gazed upon by some worthy or unworthy
spectators, eight of them perished on the spot
by a sudden death. Oh, how great reverence is due
to that place which guards, as it were asleep, so
illustrious a confessor of Christ ! "

§ 6. THE MONK AILWIN, THE FOURTH WITNESS OF ST.
EDMUND'S INOORRUPTION, A.D. 990 to 1032.

[Authorities— Herman, a monk of St. Edmund's Bury, fully details the events of
tins and the following sections. To his transcript, the oldest extant, of
the " Vita Sti Kdmundi" by St. Abbo, Herman adds an original production on
the miracles of St. Edmund, MS. Cott. Tiber B, ii. ff 19b-S4b, which is of the
highest value. He compiled it, he says, partly from oral testimony and partly
from an old work written in a difficult and crabbed hand, — "calamo...dim-
cillimo, et, ut ita dicam, adamantine." Next to Herman's Chronicle ranks
the "iMiracula et Translatio Sancti JOdnmndi Regis et Martyris," MS. Cott. Titus
A. viii. ft'83b-151b, — a compilation from Herman, Prior John and Osbert de
Clare. Arnold in his ''Memorials" ascribes the authorship of this piece
to Samson, although only four out of thirty-seven chapters are original. Sam-
son, however, if he be the compiler, rewrote the miracles of Herman, and added
several fresh facts. A further account of these two authorities will be found at
the beginning of chapter xii. In his " Speculum Historic " (Rolls Publ., vol.

'60), Richard of Cirencester, a
history of the life of St. Edm

older annalists like Herman, a
applies to the " Liber Ccenol
narrative. LyJgate still conti
clers.]

nonk of Westminster A.D. 1350, gives the whole
ind and of his relics at this period. He is thus

one of the royal martyr's chief English biographers ; but he took his facts from

id so gives no new details. The same remark
ii " and Curteys' Register on this part of the
ues to put into verse the prose of other chroni-

The keepers of The clerics who first devoted their lives by a per-
sin-ine be'come petual vow to the guardianship of St. Edmund's shrine
in the course of a few years increased in number
to nineteen or twenty and were constituted into a col-
lege of secular canons. l After the death of Theodred
the Good they continued in their first fervour, but
only so long as Bishop Adulph lived. 2 Under Adulph's
successors Ailfric, Athelstan and St. Algar, the eccle-
siastical discipline of the secular canons of St. Edmund
gradually relaxed. St. Abbo, who visited them about

1 Probably in the reign of Ethelred the Unready.

2 Adulph died in 966.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 161

the year 980, and founded a school amongst them,
did not succeed in rekindling their piety and enthusi-
asm. Later annalists, like Herman, justly complain of
the negligent way in which they kept the records
of miracles at this time. Even with regard to the
shrine itself they had become careless, so that in
the year 990 l Bishop Athelstan deprived them of its
guardianship and gave it into the charge of the Bene-
dictine Ailwin, the fourth witness of the incorruption
of St. Edmund's body.

Ailwin 2 was the son of the Oswy and Leof lede Ailwin, out of

i -TTT- 11 ji o -ni i devotion to 8t

who gave Wisbeach to the convent of Ely, and Edmund, joins

them for a time.

from his parents he inherited his love for the
supernatural. His piety and detachment from the
world led him, while yet a layman, to St. Edmund's
sanctuary. Feeling himself called to the ecclesiastical
state, he joined the secular canons of St. Edmund
•out of love for their illustrious patron. Afterwards,
however, won by the devout life of Wolfric and his Afterwards he
companions, who had restored the church of St. Benedict
and the monastic life at Hulme, 3 he petitioned for

1 According to the Douai MS. , which dates it thirty years before
the coming in of the Benedictines.

2 Written variously Egelwin and Alfiwinus (Herman, Hoved),
Ealwinus (Westmonaster. ) Aldwin (Dunelm.) Elf win (Text.
Koff.) Ailwin (Lydgate).

3 St. Benedict's at Hulme or Holme at Horning in Norfolk
was a hermitage in King Edmund's time. Suneman the anchoret
sought its marshy solitude in obedience to an angel's order. Others
desirous of leading a penitential life resorted to him, and he built
and dedicated a chapel and hermitage in honour of the patriarch
St. Benedict, the land round about being given by the thane
Horning or Home. Under Hinguar and Hubba the Danes
destroyed the church and the cells of the hermits ; but after-
wards a holy man named Wolfric rebuilt the church, and,
gathering together seven companions, refounded the church and
monastery under the rule of St. Benedict. Wolfric governed the
new foundation forty years as abbot or prior, and during his reign
admitted Ailwin to the habit. Canute early in the eleventh

162 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTY!.1.

the habit of St. Benedict and became a monk. At
Hulme Ailwin vied with Suneman and Wolfric in
the saintliness of his life. But throughout his pious
exercises he longed to see a reform among the clergy
at Beodricsworth, who kept the body of the martyr
king " without any honour," and instead of spending
the offerings made to the saint upon the church they
The monk divided them among themselves. Ailwin at length

Aihvm is

glSKrine. attained the fulfilment of his desire by his own

appointment to the guardianship of the shrine.
His reverence Ailwin's tender and affectionate watchfulness over

for the dead,

St. Edmund's body forms one of the most touching
chapters in its history. To honour the earthly re-
mains of the dead is indeed an instinct of nature.
It prompts the mourner to provide the richly fur-
nished coffin, to cover the bier with flowers and
wreaths and to adorn the fresh-turfed grave. By the
funeral pomp, the spacious vault, the marble monu-
ment man shows reverence for the bodies of those
whom in life he loved. The Church's teaching ele-
vates and sanctifies this instinct of nature. The body
is the tabernacle of the soul, the temple of God's
spirit, the resting-place of Christ's eucharistic presence.
Therefore, although Mother Church allows nothing
that can disparage the lesson of death, she lays the
body to rest with solemn rites, because it contains the
seed of immortality and shall rise again at the last day.
So faith and love inspired Ailwin in his tendance
Ami especially of st Edmund's body. He guarded it as the most

for St. Edmund's

precious of relics, once the sanctuary of a noble
soul and the armour of an heroic Christian, a memento
left to earth of an angel, a warrior, a king, a saint.
Edmund's personality had left an indelible impression

century endowed Hulme, and from it came the colony of monks
whom he put into possession of the church and abbey which he
raised over St. Edmund's shrine.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 163

on the minds and traditions of his people. His
nation held him in greater glory than modern Eng-
land holds any of her heroes whose bones rest under
the dome of St. Paul's or in the consecrated aisles of
Westminster. Illustrious sanctity and his champion-
ship of the faith raised him in the eyes of Christendom
far above other defenders of their country. The
dread Lord of heaven and earth Himself glorified
the martyr and honoured his body by miracles, not
the least being its preservation from decay. Those
only who sneer at the natural and supernatural alike
can therefore wonder at Ailwin's devotion to the saint's
remains. He knew that Edmund's soul loved and
honoured its body and rewarded those who reverenced it.

Therefore, " out of devotion to the saint," writes He washes and

arranges it.

Herman, " Ailwin did menial service to St. Edmund."
He opened the coffin and, with the love of a son
arranging a dead father for his last sleep, he often
poured water on the incorrupt members of the martyr-
king's body, l and composed the long flowing hair of the
sacred head with a comb. Whatever hair came off
he carefully preserved in a box. 2 From this privi-
lege of tending and waiting upon the king his
acquaintances styled him "the martyr's confidential
chamberlain ; " for " in every way he did as dutiful
service to him as any man is wont to a living per-
son." Frequently this faithful servant of St. Edmund
spent the night in mutual converse with his master.
He spoke to him as it were face to face; and what-
ever favour the common people sought from their
" Father Edmund " they asked for through Ailwin.

1 St. Bede relates how their respective guardians washed the
incorrupt bodies of St. Ethelburga and St. Oswald, and pre-
served the water as holy and sacred.

'J To treasure the hair of the dead is a common practice in our
own day.

164 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND* MARTYR.

Stfonofdes' The P°et of St. Edmund's Bury has not failed to
commemorate in his epic this devoted follower of
his hero. He thus describes Ailwin's familiar inti-
macy with blessed Edmund :

" First Ailwin that cely [celestial] creature

Afforn [before] his shrine upon the pavement lay :

In his praiere devoutly dyde endure,

Seelde [seldom] or never parteden [departing] night nor day.

For whausoever his lieges felte affraye

The peple in him had so great beleve

Through his request Edmund sholde hem [them] releve.

The perfection of Allewyn was so couth [full of grace]

So renommed his conversacioun,

That many a tyme they spak to gidre [together] mouth by

mouth

Touchynge hyh thynges off comtemplacioun,
Expectfull oft, be revelacioun
Off' hevenly thynges, to speke in words few,
Be gostly secretys which God lyst to him shewe. "

§ 7. THE SECOND TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY.
IT IS TAKEN TO LONDON, A.D. 1010.

{Authorities— The same as for the previous section. Stowe's " Survey of London,"
edited by William J. Thorns, F.S.B., 1842, describes London at this period.
The church of St. Gregory, in which Ailwin deposited St. Edmund's body,
survived till 1045. It therefore forms, together with the chapter-house, a
marked feature in Ralph Agas' map of London. William Longman's "Three
Cathedrals dedicated to St. Paul" contains the ground-plan of St. Gregory's
church, plate 28, and a sketch of its interior, plate 14, chap. iii. Hollar's
plate shows a church of St. Gregory of a debased style, and therefore clearly
not the original one, which was Anglo-Saxon. Alban Butler dates this second
translation of St. Edmund A.D. 920, a mistake copied into the " Menology
of England and Wales," and into the inaccurate Petits Bollandistes.]

The Danes in For twenty years Ailwin affectionately guarded
emfofthe ioth the shrine of his " lord and father Edmund " at
Beodricsworth. At the end of that time fresh troubles
overwhelmed the country, and, trembling for the
safety of his treasure, he fled with it from East
Anglia. To understand the reason of Ailwin's action
it will be necessary to take up the thread of English

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 165

and East Anglian history from the period of the
first translation in 903. Shortly after that event
King Edward annexed East Anglia to the rest of
his kingdom ; and in the reign of his successor,
Athelstan, the partly independent Danish chieftains
entirely disappeared. In fact the Danes throughout
England had almost ceased to be foes. Under their
leader Anlaff they made a successful stand in
Northumbria against Athelstan's brother, King
Edmund, but it was short-lived, and after Edmund's
death they submitted to King Edred without a
struggle. After the fall of Edwy and the succession
of Edgar St. Dunstan's firm but gentle hand finally
welded Danes and English into one nation. When
the great churchman crowned St. Edward the martyr,
it seemed as if the united kingdom which he had
made could weather any storm. But the murder
of young king Edward brought endless troubles on
the hapless Ethelrecl, whose mother's crime gave
him his brother's throne and with it the curse of
blood. Years of scarcity, distemper among the cattle,
plague among the people combined to bring misery
on the kingdom. The Danes, getting scent of the
distracted state of the country and of the king's
unpopularity, renewed their attacks with a perti-
nacity which ended in the accession of a Danish
monarch to the English throne. At first they made
a few raids on the coasts only ; then a formidable
armament reduced Ipswich. Treaties were negotiated
and thousands of pounds paid in bribes, but in vain.
Ethelred equipped armies and navies only to see
their commanders turn traitors and join the Norsemen.
In 994 Sweyn king of Denmark and Olave king of
Norway sailed up the Thames with their combined
fleets to attack London. Eepulsed from the capital,
they scattered their forces over Essex, Kent, Sussex

166 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

and Hampshire, which they wasted with fire and
sword. During this war or the next Sweyn invaded
St. Edmund's patrimony and probably entered his
town. l Ethelred bought off the two kings with the
of^Brice™ sum °f sixteen thousand pounds. A few years later,
on the feast of St. Brice, November the 13th, 1003, took
place the cold-blooded slaughter of all Danes dwell-
ing in England, known as the massacre of St. Brice.
Sweyn's four years of avenging devastation and
murder followed, ending with the exaction of thirty-
six thousand pounds of silver as compensation.
During these ferocious wars Ailwin constantly dreaded
that some evil would befall St. Edmund's body.
When, therefore, he heard of the landing of another
Danish army under Count Turchil, he determined to
seek safety in flight.

Turchii invades The Danish chief Turchil invaded England osten-
fool!am1' A'D' sibly to avenge the death of a brother, but really
for the sake of plunder and rapine. Sweyn, who
shrank from the open violation of solemn treaties,
gave the expedition his secret approval. For three
years England cowered terror-stricken at Turchil's
feet. In the first year of his invasion (A.D. 1009) he
devastated the southern counties. In the second
his hordes landed at Ipswich and overran East
Anglia on their way to the fens, whither thousands
of the English had fled for security. But, before
the invaders thus menaced St. Edmund's shrine, the
blessed martyr had warned Ailwin of the approach-
ing danger and bidden him flee with his sacred
charge.

Ailwin takes up The devoted monk hired a common cart, on which
iemainTand8 he placed the holy body, and wandered forth. He

wanders about

with them. found the open country and the unfortified towns

1 Yates says that Sweyn destroyed St. Edmund's Bury, but
there is no historical proof of it.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 167

wholly abandoned to the enemy, whose avowed
object was to reduce England to a solitude. The
only course left to him was to seek security in
London. Repeatedly besieged even by Turchil's men,
that town alone had successfully resisted attack and
offered protection to its citizens. Towards the capital,
then, Ailwin turned his face, stealthily avoiding
the more frequented roads, and in constant fear lest
the Danes should overtake him.

On reaching the borders of Essex at nightfall, he He is inhospi-
tably receive!
came across the quiet and secluded house of the *» Essex.

priest Eadbright, the father of Abbot Alfwin of
Ramsey. 1 There he sought shelter ; but the priest,
afraid to harbour strangers in those troublous times,
refused admittance. With difficulty Ailwin obtained
permission to rest in the adjoining yard till morning*
Tired and weary he lay down to sleep under the
cart in which reposed his royal master. He slept,
but his heart kept watch. 2 That night a pillar of
light which dimmed the very stars illumined the
dome of heaven, the sole canopy over St. Edmund's
body, and kept watch over the lowly shrine. Music,
too, sweet as that which the shepherds heard, floated
on the air. 3 At three o'clock in the morning the
wheels of the cart began to move, non hominis scd
Dei motionc — not by the action of man but of God.
Thus supernaturally warned, the saint's " charioteer "
arose without delay and continued his flight. He Thc priest.s
had not gone far when, looking back, he beheld the sumeVwitii
priest's house enveloped in flames, in punishment,
as it seemed, for his timid and inhospitable recep-
tion of the martyr's relics.

Venturing at last on the wide Roman road from

: Alfwin was abbot in 1043, and ruled for thirty-six years.

2 Herman; "Cant, of Cant.," v. 2.

3 Gillingwater's " Account of Bury," p. 41.

168 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Aiiwiu crosses Colchester to London, the faithful monk found his

the Lea by a

broken bridge. way barred at Stratford1 by the swollen waters of
the river Lea. Stratford is now considered part of
the capital, but till half a century ago it was little
more than a country village situate about four miles
from St. Paul's. A slender bridge, since replaced by
the solid structure connecting Stratford with
Stratford-le-Bow, spanned the stream. 2 Ailwin found
the bridge broken and unsafe and far too narrow
for his cart to cross. He knew not what to do or
whither to turn, for the ford was impassable, and
the Danes — as the number of people hastening to
London indicated — pressed on from behind. Ailwin
saw St. Paul's and safety within reach. Putting his
trust in heaven, he boldly advanced, when, behold !
while the right wheel of the cart ran upon the surface
of the bridge, the left, suspended between water and
sky, moved along in mid-air on a level with its
fellow.

"To forme at Stratforde callyd at the horse

His littel cane, when it should passe

The brigge, broke the strame unknowne,

Har we was the plawne, ther was no way but grace.

Aloff the flood and littel wheel gan glace,

The tother wheel glod on the boord a foffte

And Ayllawn went aft'orn ful soffte. "3

1 The Street-ford.

" Queen Matilda built the first bridge of stone in gratitude for her
escape from drowning in the Lea. Her structure was memorable
as the first bridge built in England with an arch of stone.

3 Lydgate's verse put into modern English reads :
To a form [or plank] at Stratford called the horse [or wooden

frame]

His litter came, when it came to pass that
A stream of unknown depth broke against the bridge,
How wee [small] was the plain [level] there was no way but grace.
Aloft the flood one wheel of the litter began to glance,
The other wheel glided on the board afoot
And Ailwin went before full softly.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 169

The entry into London now became a triumphant He enters

London.

procession. Fugitives had carried the news before.
Eye-witnesses related the miraculous passage of the
Lea. The clergy and principal citizens came forth
to welcome the royal martyr of the east and in
turns carried the coffin on their shoulders. As the
procession entered Aldgate, 1 the crowds of specta-
tors grew larger and lined the whole of Cheapside
as far as the Cathedral. The name and praise of
St. Edmund were on every lip. The defender of
his people against the Danes ! How honoured their
city to receive the visit of this illustrious guest and
powerful protector ! The sick and the lame and the
diseased pressed forward to touch the coffin. " And Numerous
Edmund out of his royal clemency shed his favours happen,
around. To the blind he gave sight; to the deaf,
hearing ; to the dumb, speech. The crippled and
the paralysed regained the use of their limbs. Lepers
received cleanness of body. On the way from Aid-
gate to the church of Blessed Pope Gregory eighteen
miracles were wrought."

A bedridden woman of the city, with limbs con- The cure of the

crippled woman.

tracted and withered from the waist downwards,
heard the commotion in the streets, as she lay in
a wicker-basket which served her for a bed. She

1 There were at this period four gates only to London :
Aldgate, or Ealsgate, for the east ; Aldersgate for the north ;
Ludgate for the west ; and Bridgegate over the Thames for the
south. By degrees the citizens opened other gates large and
small. Cripplesgate was at first a postern near Ealsgate, and its
vaulted passage running under the mass of the parapet and
through the rampart gave it its name of crcpel or cryfele a burrow,
and geat, a gate. In Agas' map Cripplesgate is given as an
important entrance conducting by Cheapside to St. Paul's (see
Denton's "Cripplesgate, or Ealsgate Without," Appendix A.)
At Aldgate the abbot of St. Edmund's Bury had Christ church,
the side of which bore the inscription Bcvis Marks, a corruption
of Bury Marks.

170 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MART YE.

asked the meaning of the tumult. " The innocent
St. Edmund, king of the East Angles, is passing,"
her attendants answered, " he who died for Christ by
the hands of impious men." " Oh," she exclaimed,
" that my eyes might see how great and glorious
a saint now enters our city ! Could my hand
touch but the covering over his coffin, I should be
healed." That instant she felt her limbs grow strong
beneath her, and, leaping from her basket-bed, she
ran after the procession, praising God and weeping
tears of joy. This nineteenth miracle on that day
attested St. Edmund's power.

So Ailwin made his way to the great basilica of
the Apostle St. Paul. The line of thoroughfare is
still the same, and busy men and women in hustling
throngs hurry to and fro over the route which eight
centuries ago the royal martyr Edmund traversed.
Under shelter of the cathedral and built close up
to its south-west wall stood the church of the blessed
Pope Gregory. l Within that sanctuary Ailwin de-
posited St. Edmund's body. He resisted all attempts

1 St. Gregory's church stood at the south-west corner of St
Paul's, built close up to the wall, its facade being on a line with
the west front of the cathedral. It was not uncommon for parish
churches to be built in close proximity to a cathedral, as for instance
St. Margaret's at Westminster, but there is probably no other
instance, at least in England, of a chiirch being erected against the
very walls of the cathedral. Three churches of St. Gregory in
turn occupied the same site : first, the Anglo-Saxon church, which
sheltered St. Edmund's body ; a second of Norman style ; and
a third, a post- reformation church of debased architecture. St.
Gregory's church stood till about 1645, and not till the great fire,
as Stowe implies. Its position was then considered to be a
mistake, and, notwithstanding a petition from the parishioners
against its demolition, it was "pulled down in regard it was
thought to be a blemish to the stately cathedral whereunto it
adjoined." (State Papers, Domestic, pp. 218-408.) The old
churchyard of St. Gregory's is probably the only vestige of the
old church. Within the parish of St. Gregory, however, was

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYK. 171

to take it into the cathedral, suspecting that the
authorities there might steal his treasure from him,
— a fear not without foundation, as after events
proved.

At the martyr's shrine in St. Gregory's church ^
not only London citizens but strangers from afar bl
paid their devotions, and the crowds of pilgrims
presented gifts without number to adorn the saint's
resting-place. Conspicuous among these votive offer-
ings were two golden bracelets which a wealthy Dane
gave to the saint. He had come to the church not
out of devotion, but to see what attracted the people.
When others knelt, he stood looking on, too proud
to bend his knee. At length he stept forward and
irreverently threw back the pall over the bier to
see underneath, but in the act he became blind of
both eyes. Overwhelmed by the suddenness and
gravity of his punishment, lie fell on his face on
the ground and with deep sorrow acknowledged his
sin. He filled the church with groans and prayers
to the saint. He implored the bystanders to inter-
cede for him, for God had touched his heart with
repentance and devotion to his martyr. In answer
to the people's prayers he again received his sight.

erected a church of St. Edmund, whose modern substitute still
exists in Lombard Street and is known as St. Edmund the
Martyr's.

Perhaps the last record of St. Gregory's is the following extract
from the "Times" of Friday, July 1, 1887 :

"lUnion of City Benefices. — The proposed union of the parishes
of St. Gregory by St. Paul, and St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish
Street (the church of which in Knightrider Street was destroyed
by fire some time since), with that of St. Martin, Ludgate, has
"been favourably reported on by the Commissioners who were
appointed to consider the subject. The rector of the new benefice
is to receive £570 per annum. The site in Knightrider Street is
to be sold, and after payment of expenses, the proceeds are to go
towards the erection of a new church in the metropolis."

172 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

In gratitude he took off his golden bracelets and
laid them at St. Edmund's feet as a perpetual
memorial of his conversion.

r°r three years tlie holv body resfced in st.

Gregory's church to the great increase of the martyr's
fame throughout England. On the restoration of
peace, however, Ailwin resolved to tarry there no
longer, but to return to Beodrics worth.

§ 8. THE THIRD TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY. IT

IS TAKEN BACK TO BEODRICSWORTH (ST. EDMUND'S BURY),
A.D. 1013.

[Authorities — The same as for section C.]

count Turciiii In the second year of St. Edmund's sojourn in

is bought off

by the English. London, the chief witan and clergy met to consider
the best means of ridding the land of the hated
invader. There was something soul-inspiring in the
presence in their midst on this occasion of the body of
the royal martyr, who in his day had defended his
country against the Danes. But neither the presence
nor the example of St. Edmund, nor the blood-
stained remains of St. Elphege, archbishop of Canter-
bury, l which the faithful brought from Greenwich
to St. Paul's at this juncture, could move King
Ethelred and his men to a courageous resistance.
Frequent treachery, defeat in the battle-field and mutual
distrust inclined the English to buy off the enemy
rather than risk a conflict. Accordingly they paid
a bribe of eight-and-forty thousand pounds to Turchil,
who, after ravaging the greater part of thirteen
counties, now swore allegiance to Ethelred and sold
to him his friendship and services.

1 St. Elphege met his death at the hands of the Danes on
refusing to allow a ransom to be paid for his release.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYR. 173

Ailwin on the conclusion of the treaty prepared e
to take back to East Anglia the body of its illus- ^ in London-
trious king and patron. He had passed an anxious
time in London. All his firmness had been put to
the test to keep possession of the shrine or to pre-
serve it intact. The servant of God Elphege had
tried to lay hands upon the piece of the true cross
which, suspended from the saint's neck, lay in a
reliquary upon his breast, and only Ail win's resis-
tance to the archbishop's pressing entreaties had
saved it. A more dangerous and ambitious foe ap-
peared in the person of Alphun bishop of London.
It was a public secret that he desired to retain
the saint's body for his cathedral church. As
Lydgate quaintly puts it, he " gan wishe him to
translate into Pauley's cherche." Ailwin respect-
fully opposed the prelate's wishes. Meanwhile
the " saint encourages l his faithful followers to go
back with him again into his own territory," and
with this object Ailwin appoaches the bishop for
permission. It is refused, but Ailwin persists, and
finally Alphun yields.

Thus

" Aillewyn by revelacion
Took off the bishop, upon a day, lycence
To lead King Edmund ageyn to Bury. "

The parishioners, notified by the bishop of the Bishop Aipium

finds the bier

intended departure, assembled in large numbers in
the church. Alphun himself, accompanied by a con-
siderable body of the clergy robed in albs, came in pro-
cession from the cathedral, and in a sermon, spoken
amid the tears and regrets of his hearers, alluded to
the great loss they were about to sustain. He hoped
to rouse the populace to resistance. The sermon

1 " Per opera mira." — Herman.

174 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

over, he and three others approached the bier as if
to bear it forth upon their shoulders out of the city,
but in reality to carry it into St. Paul's. They
found the bier immoveable. Four more stalwart
priests stepped forward, and then a third four, but
their efforts were in vain. Not even twice twelve
could move it. The bishop, feeling himself discovered,
withdrew to one side in confusion, while the assem-
bled citizens rejoiced in the thought that St. Edmund
had chosen to remain among them.
Aiiwin and his But there and then the faithful guardian Ail win fell

friends easily

move it. on hjg ]cnees upon the pavement, and with his whole

soul besought his master Edmund not to forsake
the country and people for whom he died, lest, like
sheep without a shepherd, they should fall a prey
to wolves. He rose, and, to the wonder of the
spectators, himself with three companions lifted up
the coffin as though it were a light and easy burden.
They bore it forth into the open air amid the singing
of hymns, followed by a long procession. Thus to
the great sorrow of the whole city the blessed martyr
and his servant Aiiwin departed from London.
The triumphant It was no longer necessary to keep to lanes and
Beodricsworth. by-roads in order to avoid observation. All along
the route the inhabitants vied with one another in
showing honour and respect to the royal martyr.1
On the announcement of his coming the whole popu-
lation of a town or village hurried forth with shouts
of joy and welcome to meet and escort him upon
the way. In their zeal they repaired the bridges,
strewed the streets with flowers and hung their
houses with tapestry. God rewarded this devotion
by miraculously healing all the infirm and diseased
who invoked the intercession of St. Edmund as he
passed through their midst.
1 Gillingwater's "Account of Bury."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 175

Ailwin chose as his route the ancient way that -rue route
runs from London by Chipping Ongar, Chelmsford,
Braintree, and Clare and thence to St. Edmund's
Bury. The first stage of his journey he made at
Stapleford. The lord of the manor reverently lodged
the sacred body and its guardians in his house. In uy;stapiefor.i

Abbots

reward St. Edmund cured him of a lingering illness,
and the grateful noble presented Stapleford Manor,
better known as Stapleford Abbots, as a thank-offering
to the saint. The holy body next rested at Green- And Greensteau.
stead within the parish of Chipping Ongar. The
faithful hastily erected a church there to receive
the sacred relics.1 Chestnut trees were sawn length-
ways into two, and the halves set upright in a sill
and plate to form the walls. Sixteen of these half
trunks and two door-posts form the south side, and
twenty-three the north. In this rough edifice the
body of St. Edmund remained for some days, in
order to satisfy the devotion of the faithful, and
then Ailwin proceeded on his way.

After the departure from Greenstead no event of
importance occurred till the martyr arrived at his own
town. The inhabitants of Beodricsworth, out of them- m.

The arrival at

selves with joy, gave the monk and his sacred charge a Beodricsworth.
triumphant welcome and escorted them to the wooden
basilica which Theodred the Good had built. Thus one
hundred and forty-three years after his martyrdom
their protector and patron was again laid to rest
in their midst. " There," writes Eichard of Ciren-
cester, 2 " by the favour of God, even to this day,
he ceases not to plead the cause of those who devoutly
seek him." The grateful people, who had despaired

1 It still stands, the oldest church in England. See Palgrave's
engraving of it, and also a print in Knight's "Old England,"
vol. i. p. 82.

2 And Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.

176 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

of ever seeing the saint again, loaded his shrine with
thank-offerings and prayed St. Edmund

" With them to byde
And never parte away."

§ 9. THE FOURTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND. His
HOLY BODY IS MOVED INTO KlNG CANUTE'S NEW CHURCH,
OCT. 18, A.D. 1032.

The fourth translation of St. Edmund was made
by King Canute as an act of reparation for his father
Sweyn's irreverent conduct towards the great martyr
and his clients. The whole incident is one of special
^terest as giving an insight into the deep personal
*ove of the East Anglians for St. Edmund and
their unbounded confidence in his power. At the
same time it accounts for the popularity of the saint
throughout England, the people everywhere regarding
him from this period as the saviour of the country
from further Danish invasion.
sweyn king of Few tyrants have afflicted the earth more ferocious

Denmark.

than Sweyn, the king of Denmark at the beginning of
the eleventh century. After murdering his own father
to obtain power, he began a career of bloodshed and
crime unparalleled in history. Master of the whole
of Scandinavia, he ruled its wild and gigantic forces with
a skill and determination which none dared oppose.
On three occasions he invaded England: the first in
company with Olave king of Sweden ; the second after

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYK. 177

the massacre of St. Brice ; and the third after Turchil's
peace with Ethelred. Envy at Turchil's success
and irritation at his subsequent engagement with
King Ethelred seem to have been the only motives for
Sweyn's third attack on the country. He summoned all His third

invasion of

his vassals to his standard for this crowning expedition England.
and openly declared his intention of punishing his rival
subject and of conquering England for himself. The
very year that Ailwin took back St. Edmund's body to
East Anglia, he unexpectedly set sail for Sandwich.
His fleet was equipped with plunder from every
country in Europe, and the magnificence of his own
galley astonished all who beheld it. Eoiled in his
attempt to corrupt the Danish mercenaries in Kent,
he made for the mouth of the Humber, landed his
forces and by the terror of his name subjugated
the Mercians, some of whom he enrolled among his
troops, forcing others to purchase exemption by sup-
plying horses and provisions. His march to the
Thames was rapid and destructive, and south of the
Thames he awed the country into submission by a
ruthless display of power. He devastated every
foot of the open country, demolished towns,
villages and hamlets on the line of march and
sacked and burned to the ground churches and
monasteries. Able-bodied men were pressed into his
service or put to the sword. The panic-stricken
English made no resistance. The conqueror marched
through the open gates of Oxford and Winchester, and
took hostages from both cities. His victorious career
was only checked for a moment by Ethelred and
Turchil's brave defence of London. The skill and
strategy of the latter baffled the tyrant, who
slowly fell back on Bath, leaving in his wake
the usual desolation and ruin. He there proclaimed „

He proclaims

himself king of England and compelled the thanes himself king>

178

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

And imposes a
tax on all tlie
country.

The people
appeal to St.
Edmund and
Aihvin.

of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex to acknowledge
his sovereignty. At this juncture the Londoners,
wavering between doubt and fear, persuaded the king
and Turchil to retire, and, without further struggle,
to hand over their city to the conqueror. In the
second week of January, 1014, Ethelred with his
queen and children fled to Normandy. On the 2nd
of February following, Sweyn, just as he had the
whole realm in his grasp, was suddenly and mysterious-
ly struck dead.

The English annalists of St. Edmund's Bury relate
the incident with careful minuteness. Sweyn, they
say, as soon as he had established his tyranny, im-
posed a heavy tax on the whole country and sent
envoys throughout the length and breadth of the
land to collect it. He exempted not even the holiest
sanctuaries. Though he had abjured paganism, in-
fluenced by the teaching and miracles of St. Poppo,
he despised the Christian mysteries and worship
when they stood in his way. Hence the patrimony
of St. Edmund was included in his decree. The
canons of St. Edmund, however, and the men of his
town refused to pay the tax. Beodric, they asserted,
had given the place to King Edmund; to him it be-
longed, and to him only would they pay tribute.
The tax-gatherers, filled with the traditional fear of
the royal martyr's power, dared not insist. Mean-
while, dreading the ferocious vengeance of Sweyn,
the inhabitants of the town and district came in
crowds to St. Edmund's shrine. By prayers and
offerings and the burning of innumerable lights they
appealed to their " Father Edmund " to protect them
from the Danish tyrant, and they implored Ailwin,
the saint's " chamberlain " and intimate, to lay their
petitions before his master.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 179

As the monk was keeping his usual night watch st. Edmund

appears in a

in the silence of the church, speaking with the saint f^"^0 his
" as a friend to a friend," he fell asleep, and straightway attendant'
blessed Edmund, shining and glorious, in robes white
as snow and with a cheerful countenance, stood
before him. " Go," spoke the saint to his faithful
attendant, " go and deliver my message to King
Sweyn. Ask him in my name : Why tax you the
people who pay tribute to none but me ? Cease your
exactions. Remove these grievous burdens or you
shall know that I am a terrible defender of my own."

Next morning the pious keeper of the shrine told ^ye°
the people his vision and with a light step set out Mmun
for Gainsborough, where King Sweyn and his army
lay encamped.1 Admitted to the tyrant's presence,
Ailwin humbly delivered his message in St. Edmund's
name and implored the Dane to remit the impost
out of reverence for the saint. Sweyn at first treated
him with silent contempt, but, when the fearless
monk upbraided him for his cruelty and threatened
him with St. Edmund's anger, he broke out into a
torrent of abuse. With a face livid with rage he
drove the monk from his presence, swearing that,
unless he departed quickly, his Edmund should re-
ceive him back a sorry sight, if indeed he left there at
all alive. Ailwin, thus rudely repulsed, started for
home, and the evening of the next day, " the feast
of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, St.
Edmund appeared to Sweyn in a vision," says William
of Malmesbury, " and remonstrated with him on
the misery he was inflicting on his people. The
tyrant giving an insolent reply, the saint struck him
on the head, and he died of the blow immediately

1 This is the second time that Sweyn is recorded to have been
at Gainsborough. See Leland, "Collect.," vol. i. p. 248; Cap-
grave, apud Cressy's Church History, p. 922.

180

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Near Lincoln
the saint
again appears
to his servant.

Some Danish
soldiers over-
take him on
his way home.

They describe
the manner of
Sweyn's death.

after." l " The Lord," exclaims Herman, " hath broken
kings in the day of His wrath. He shall crush
their heads in the land of the many." 2

Ailwin received the full particulars of the royal
decease from eye-witnesses under the following cir-
cumstances. Downhearted at the failure of his mission,
yet full of confidence in St. Edmund, he rested his
weary limbs, the second night after quitting Sweyn,
in the neighbourhood of Lincoln. Here the martyr
ever his guide and protector, again appeared to him.
" Why are you so sad and anxious ? " the vision asked.
" Have you forgotten my words ? Arise at once
and proceed on your way ; before you reach home,
certain news of King Sweyn shall make you and all
your fellow-countrymen leap with joy." "Without delay
the monk arose and, though it was not yet daylight,
continued his journey.

On taking to the high road he heard the tramp
of horses and the murmur of voices behind him.
As the horsemen approached, he recognised them
by their dress and language as Danish soldiers.
Under the guardianship of St. Edmund, however, he
feared nothing, and on their overtaking him returned
the customary salutations and even joined in con-
versation. Suddenly one of the soldiers, after obser-
ving him closely said, "Pray, friend, are you the
priest whom I think I saw the day before yesterday
in King Sweyn's presence boldly delivering a message
from a certain Edmund ? "

The monk, unable to disguise the fact, meekly
answered that it was he.

" Alas, alas ! " exclaimed the soldier, " how heavy
has fallen your threat ! How true has come your

1 "Chronicle of the Kings," Bohn's edit., p. 190. Leland,
"Itiner.," says that this happened "in regione Flegg mari
proximo. "

2 Ps. cix.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 181

prophecy ! King Sweyn's death leaves England re-
joicing and Denmark mourning." With a heart
throbbing betwixt fear and joy Ailvvin kept
silence while the soldier continued his story. It
appeared that the night after Ailwin's departure King
Sweyn retired to his couch as usual, secure and
self-satisfied and in high spirits. And at. an hour
when perfect silence reigned throughout the camp,
an unknown warrior of surpassing beauty and in
flashing armour invaded his chamber and addressed
him by name : " Do you persist," he said, " in exact-
ing tribute from St. Edmund's territory. If so, arise
now and take it." The king quickly sprang up in
bed1 as if to resist, but, affrighted by his visitor's
angry countenance, he shouted vociferously, " Help,
comrades, help ! Behold, St. Edmund slays me ! "
For the " invincible " martyr had struck him with his
spear. 2 Meanwhile Sweyn's followers, aroused by his
shouting, rushed to his tent to find him mortally
wounded and weltering in blood. He lingered long
enough to tell what had happened and then miserably
expired.

The Danish leaders, as far as possible, concealed other historical

accounts of

the manner of their sovereign's death, not a difficult «weyn's death.

matter, seeing that few knew it, and that the body,

after being embalmed in salt, was at once carried

out of the country. In Denmark the truth was

never wholly known. Some of its historians write

as though Sweyii died religiously and gloriously.

The unknown author of the " Encomium of Queen

1 Florence of Worcester (Bohn's edit., p. 123) says Sweyn was
on horseback. The true account in the text is from Herman, who
received it from Aihvin himself.

2 To commemorate this incident some ancient carvings repre-
sent St. Edmund arrayed in armour and holding a spear. The
Jesuit fathers preserve one of these figures in an excellent state of
preservation in their church at Bury.

182 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Emma " l speaks in this tone, no doubt in order to
please his patroness. The Saxo-Grammaticus 2 says
that he died at the acme of honour and renown.
Albert Krauzius and the author of the " Abridged
History of Denmark " 3 write in similar terms. He
died, adds the last-named writer, beloved of God
and men. These praises ill become a tyrant whose
crimes include the murder of his own father, Harold
Blodrand, and whose career of bloodshed shocked
and terrified the whole of Europe. On the other
hand, several medieval historians refer in a vague
way to Sweyn's death as unnatural. Adam of Bremen,
whom Henry of Huntingdon follows, states that
Sweyn died suddenly. Ditmar, bishop of Mersburg, 4
who lived till 1018, and was therefore a contempo-
rary, calls Sweyn an impious man and his children
a brood of vipers ; he accuses him of making a com-
pact with the devil against God and adds that there
was something supernatural in the manner of his
death. One of the crude attempts to explain this
mystery has found its way into the lessons for St.
Edward the Confessor's feast. 5 " Sweyn, king of
the Danes," says the seventh nocturn-lesson, " was
drowned in the sea, whilst embarking in a fleet for
the invasion of England," and St. Edward knew of
it supernaturally at the moment it happened. It is
impossible to accept this explanation, for two facts
to the contrary are undeniable, viz., that Sweyn died
in England, and that his followers at once conveyed
his body to Denmark. That St. Edward, then a boy
of twelve, knew by revelation the cause of Sweyn's

1 Lib. i.

2 "Hist. Dan.," lib. x.

3 " Hist. Compendiosa Reg. Danioe," c. 76.

4 Ditmarus, " Episc. Chron.," lib. vii.

5 Benedictine Breviary, Suppl., Oct. 13.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 183

death is doubtless true and may account for his
extraordinary devotion to St. Edmund. But the truth
never passed his lips. He left his biographers to
draw their own conclusions, probably wishing
to spare his mother's feelings, for Sweyn was her
father-in-law. Local history and tradition, however,
and the unanimous verdict of English chroniclers
clear up the mystery. Only an unreasoning disbelief
in the divine interference in the affairs of man can
reject the evidence of St. Edmund's freeing England
from King Sweyn.
Herman the archdeacon of Norwich, who chronicled Herman's

proofs.

the event when it was fresh in men's minds, relates
corroborating incidents with a simplicity and minute-
ness that vouches for their genuineness.

After describing the venerable Ailwin's interview A sick man m

Essex announces

with the Danish soldiers, he tells how the devoted s^eyn^sdth at

monk on arriving in East Anglia supposed that he °f to happening

would be the first to announce Sweyn's death. He

found, however, that it was already known, for a

sick man had revealed the fact in a strange and

unaccountable manner. Deprived of speech and

motion, with all the appearance of a corpse save

for a slight heaving of the chest, the man lay dying

for three whole days. On the night of Sweyn's

death he suddenly sat up in bed and, opening his

eyes, turned towards those by his bedside, exclaim-

ing in a joyful voice : " This night, at this hour, St.

Edmund has pierced King Sweyn with his spear

and slain him." Then he fell back in his bed and

breathed his last.

The people of Beodricsworth and the neighbourhood The holy woman
who had refused to pay the tax suffered no further testimony
molestation. Even in the rest of East Anglia the
tribute was neither collected nor paid, as a certain
religious woman named Alfwena, a recluse of St.

184 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Benedict's, Hulme, well remembered. For she fre-
quently told how the simple people of the seaside
district of Flegg l collected their quota and, in dread of
the barbarians, forwarded it by her father Thurcytel
to Thetford ; but he did not pay it. The royal tax-
gatherers sent it back, no one daring to take it, for
fear St. Edmund should strike him as he had struck
King Sweyn.

Jrante<Ttoaltum ^n thanksgiving for their singular deliverance the
fia^ingdof°Kinhg people of East Anglia imposed upon themselves a
voluntary tax. They would pay St. Edmund annually
and fore ver fourpence on every carucate of land
in the diocese.2 This gift, called the carucagium,
continued to be paid to St. Edmund's monastery till
the next century, when Herbert of Losinga, bishop
of Norwich, first borrowed it to build his cathedral,
and afterwards, with or without the monks' consent,
appropriated it to his own church. A whole province
thus bore witness to the fact of Sweyn's death by the
hand of St. Edmund.

reparation to3 King Canute, Sweyn's son and successor, shared
in the popular belief. On succeeding to his father's
five kingdoms, he looked upon himself as succeeding
also to his responsibilities. Fearing that with the
late tyrant's crown he had inherited St. Edmund's
anger, or, as some say, being admonished by St.
Edmund in a vision to expiate his father's crimes,
he changed his whole course of life. " From a mere
savage, Canute rose abruptly into a wise and temperate
king," writes a modern historian.3

He was specially anxious to atone to the protector

1 The country about Yarmouth, still known as the hundreds
of East and West Flegg.

2 Leland's " Collectanea," vol. i. p. 249. A carucate was as
much land as a plough could till in a year.

3 Green's "Short History,1' chap. ii.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 185

of East Anglia for his father's ravages of that province.
Early in his reign, at a council of bishops and thanes
held in Cirencester, he adopted the suggestion of Alfwin,
bishop of East Anglia, to replace the secular canons 5

1 to St. Edmund's

of St. Edmund by Benedictines, and commenced Bury.
at once to build a monastery for the future guardians
of St. Edmund's shrine. Three years, later, after
consulting Queen Emma and witli the consent of
Earl Turchil1 and all concerned, he brought twelve
monks from St. Benedict's, Hulme, and installed
them in the new buildings. " Over the community,"
so runs the old record, " Uvius, the first abbot, a
discreet and upright man, is appointed to rule and
most worthily to preside over that family of our Lord,
in the year from our Lord's Incarnation 1020, from
Edmund the holy king and martyr's passion the
150th year. The most pious King Canute reigning?
Turchil being earl of the East Angles, and our Lord
Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for
ever, being ruler over the whole world."

Canute and his queen's costly gifts to the Canute's

generosity

new foundation exceeded any which they made B
to other religious houses. According to Matthew
of Westminster, " Canute enriched the monastery
of the blessed king and martyr Edmund with such
numbers of estates and other revenues, that, as to
its temporal affairs, it is deservedly set at the head
of all other convents." At the same time he con-
firmed to St. Edmund the privileged franchise or
liberty which Camden states to have comprised a
third of Suffolk, and he commanded a great dyke
to be thrown up to mark and protect its boundaries.
Lastly, he raised a new church in honour of the

1 Canute erected four earldoms, those of Mercia, Northumber-
land, Wessex and East Anglia, whose provincial independence
he recognized. Over the last-named lie placed Turchil.

186 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

redouktable defender of the English against his com-
patriots. Ail win, who succeeded Bishop Alfwin in the
see of East Anglia, had long bemoaned the plain wooden
shrine enclosing his beloved master and the plank
church of St. Mary, so unworthy of the illustrious
dead. With joy he laid the foundations of a more
magnificent edifice of stone. The carucagium " which
was granted to St. Edmund for the slaying of King
Sweyn " was used by the monks to supplement
Canute's generous offering, so that the people also1
might have a share in the erection of a statelier'
shrine to the English champion of freedom and justice,
st. Edmund's The new basilica took twelve years to complete,
shrined in the and on the feast of St. Luke, October the 18th, 1032,

new church Oct.

is, 1032, Agelnoth archbishop of Canterbury dedicated it to

God in honour of Christ, our Lady and St. Edmund.
Into its consecrated precincts a brilliant procession
of prelates, priests, nobles and people bore the sleeping
saint and laid him to rest in a noble shrine adorned
with jewels and precious ornaments. Canute, whose
example successive English sovereigns followed, himself
offered his crown to the martyr, and acknowledged him
conqueror and Lord of the Danish nation. Thus took
place the fourth translation of St. Edmund's holy body.

And Bishop The venerable Ailwin now saw the desire of his

life fulfilled. For well nigh fifty years he had watched
over the sacred body and far and wide spread
devotion to the saint. As bishop he superintended
the erection and dedication of the royal abbey-
church. Under the auspices of his sovereign
he saw his Benedictine brethren firmly established
in the enjoyment of their rich and splendid
possessions and invested with the guardianship of
the shrine. Feeling that his work was done, he

1 Malrnesbury, " De Gest. Reg. Anglise," bk. ii. c. ii., considers
Canute as sole founder.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 187

resigned his bishopric and retired to the peace and
seclusion of his monastery at Hulme, there to prepare
for death. Once afterwards, however, he left his
retreat in order to verify the sacred relics, on the
occasion of Abbot Leofstan, the fifth witness of St.
Edmund's incorruption, opening the coffin in the
reign of St. Edward the Confessor.

§ "10. ABBOT LEOFSTAN, THE FIFTH A\riTNESs OF ST.
EDMUND'S INCORRUPTION, A.D. 1050.

[Authorities— The same as for section 6.]

On the death of the Abbot Uvius the unanimous
vote of the brethren put Leofstan in the abbatial
chair. Leofstan was a man thoroughly skilled in the
rules of monastic life. St. Edward the Confessor
held him in high esteem, and not only visited the
monastery during his rule, but munificently added
to its privileges and endowments. When Leofstan
began his reign, no one had opened the martyr's
coffin for fifty years, though all believed firmly that
the body was incorrupt. As it was likely, however*
soon to become a mere tradition, Divine Providence
brought about the verification under the fol-
lowing circumstances. A woman named Aelfgeth,

The cure of

who had been dumb from her birth, came from Win-
Chester to seek a cure at St. Edmund's shrine. The
brethren often saw her kneeling there and making
mute gestures of prayer. One day the keepers of the
shrine found her stuttering and stammering and form-
ing words. Finding herself cured, Aelfgeth resolved
to devote her life to the saint's service. She took
up her residence near the, church and with tears

188 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYE.

of gratitude proclaimed the miracle to all the pilgrims
to the sanctuary. She chiefly employed her time in
washing the floor of the church and adorning the
altars with flowers. One night the martyr rewarded
his humble client by appearing to her in a vision
and filling her with a supernatural sweetness. At
the same time he commissioned her to inform the
" father of the monastery " of the long neglect which
his sacred body had suffered. The coffin had be-
come worm-eaten, the wood-dust covered the relics,
and spiders had built their webs over his very face.
Abbot Leofstan treated the woman's story next morning
as a dream and from reverence refused to touch the
royal remains. A few days later " Father Edmund "
again appeared to his handmaid, and again at his
command she delivered her message to the abbot. A
third time the saint appeared, mingling threats
his commands. Warned so often, Leofstan

open the coffin took counsel with the brethren and then deter-
remains. ' mined, with certain other monks, to open the coffin
and verify the remains. On the Monday following
all the brethren began a triduum of fasting, watching
and a devout reciting of psalms in preparation for
the solemn ceremony. On the Thursday morning
the abbot, with those whom he had chosen " for
their innocent and meritorious lives," went in pro-
cession to the shrine, while the other monks by his
command sat in the cloister reciting psalms and hymns.
The coffin containing the blessed martyr was reverently
taken out of the shrine, and Bishop Ailwin, the
saint's aged servant, whom Leofstan had invited
from Hulme, approached to identify the precious relics.
Ailwin was now blind from age, but he was led
by the monks to the body, every part of which he care-
fully and without hesitation examined with his hands.
He found the reliquarJ containing a portion of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 189

the true cross still suspended from the martyr's
neck and lying on the breast. All remained exactly
as he had left it.

The monks now lifted the body from the coffin. The body is

taken from

Under the head they found a little pillow of fine thecom"'
shavings, which they afterwards replaced. They laid
the body, which they discovered in the state that
Aelfgeth had said, upon a low wooden table or bench
which they had previously prepared. For a whole
day it diffused around an ineffable odour of sweetness,
which filled the church, spread into the cloisters to
the distraction of the monks there, and even pene-
trated into the interior of the monastery. For,
" Blessed Edmund," writes Richard of Cirencester,
" who ' offered himself a sacrifice to God in the odour
of sweetness/ could say with the Apostle : ' We are
the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that
are saved ; ' and, ' Now thanks be to God, who
always maketh us to triumph in Christ Jesus, and
manifesteth the odour of His knowledge by us in
every place.'"1

Carefully removing the robes or coverings of the
body, they exposed to view the martyr's sleeping And exposed

to view.

form, a fair and beautiful spectacle. The serene
countenance, pale and almost transparent, suggested
the idea of one about to rise from the dead. The
blood-stained and arrow-pierced camisium or shirt and
other robes, which the saint wore at the time of his
martyrdom, still clothed the body. These the monks
reverently took off to preserve for the veneration
of the faithful. Then they wrapped the body and The monks

.... .. , clothe it anew,

limbs in a linen sheet.

Before replacing the remains in the coffin, Abbot Abbot Leofstan

tries if the hea<l

Leofstan determined to ascertain that the head was '1 to

firmly united to the body, as tradition and the
1 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15.

190 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

purple seam encircling the neck testified. For this

end he irreverently took the head in his hands and

pulled it towards him. 2 Immediately his conscience

He is punished smote him, and he shook with fear. At the same

with a contrac-
tion ofthehands. time his hands and fingers became strangely distorted,

and a kind of paralysis seized him. Thus God
punished his presumption, the cramp in his hands
remaining a perpetual proof that what he had done
pleased neither God nor the saint.

2 Malmesbury, "De Gestis Poutif.," implies that this took
place when they drew the body from the shrine. The following
is the account of the incident given by the author, probably Samson,
of MS. Cott. Titus A. viii., and Richard of Cirencester : Abbot
Leofstan, remembering that the martyr had been decapitated,
suggested trying whether the head really adhered to the body.
" Sight testifies to hearing, and touch should testify to the sight,"
said the abbot. Accordingly he bade one of the monks hold the
feet while he pulled the head. But none of the brethren dared
do it. He reminded them of their obedience. Still each and all
of them held back, " not from frowardness, but out of reverent
fear." The abbot, regarding them one by one, at last singled
out Brother Turstan, whom from a boy he had educated within
the monastic precincts. " You above all others, Brother Turstan,"
he said, "owe me obedience. You at least have no reason to
doubt the righteousness of my commands. Approach, then, and
confidently do my bidding." The young monk stepped forward
and took hold of the martyr's feet, while the abbot put one hand
under the neck and the other under the chin. Then Leofstan
hesitated. Perhaps he was wanting in respect for the dead.
Inclining his head towards the martyr's ear, he prayed : " O
glorious St. Edmund, not out of curiosity or disbelief, as thou
knowest, do I this, but that others may know the wonders of
God in thee and proclaim them to the world. Nevertheless,
because I am guilty of many sins and unworthy to handle thy
sacred limbs or to touch thy body, the temple of the Holy Ghost,
if this action of mine displease thee, I pray thee punish my
body now, for I would rather be marked with some bodily
deformity in this life than see my soul involved in eternal
flames." He then pulled the head so forcibly that he dragged
the whole body and the monk who held the feet towards
himself.

Bbbot Baldwin's <3reat Cbuixb of St.

/// ///<' ijjth century.

A. Western Towers.

a a Octagonal Towers.

B Nave.

b St. Faith's Chapel.

C St. Catharine's Chapel.

C Central Tower.

D North Transept.

B South Transept.

P High Altar.

f f f Altar Screen.

G Choir or IVcsbylwy.

g Abbot Baldwin's Shrine.

h Little Altar of the Choir,
i Altar of the Holy Cross.

k Abbot Leofstan's Shrine.
St. Edmund's Shrine.
1111 Apsidal Chapels.
M Chapel of the Relics,
m m ill Entrances to Choir.
N Lady Chapel.
O St. Andrew's Chapel.
P Site of the old round Chapel.
p Monks' entrance,
q South entrance.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 191

" For drawing of the body of the martyr
Contracted were his nerves for ever after."1

And now, quickly and with trembling hands, the T'ie Brethren

J close the coftm

monks again lay the sleeping martyr in his coffin. tottJ
Under the head they insert the little pillow. They
cover the placid face with a veil of fine silk, and
over that they spread another veil of fine linen of
the same dimensions. Then they cover the whole
length of the body with a linen cloth of snowy
whiteness, and over that again they place a long
silk veil. The relic of the true cross was not re-
placed, but, after the coffin was closed, and before
it was sewn up in its strong linen wrapper, the aged
Ail win laid on the lid the schedule of devout
prayers to St. Edmund called the " Salutacions/'
which Abbot Samson found there afterwards. Finally
they deposited the coffin in the shrine and silently
withdrew, leaving it to the custody of the appointed
guardians.

§ 11. THE FIFTH TRANSLATION, BY ABBOT BALDWIN, ON
SUNDAY, APRIL 29, A.D. 1095.

[Authorities— Several special records exist of tliis important translation. The
earliest is that of Herman, an eye-witness. Next follows the one given in the
Cott. MS. Titus A. viii. The Douai MS. contains a chapter entitled "Trans-
latio Sti Edmuncli," which has the same incipit — "Regnante Rege Willelino
Secundo," &c. — as Bocll. 240. Both give a full narrative of the translation of
St. Edmund's body " de ecclesia veteri in novam basilicam a Baldewino
constructam." MS. ccc. Cant. 34, " De Translations Sti Edmundi Regis et
Martyris," and the MS. marked Cott. Julius A. vi. in Hardy's catalogue are
two other records of the same translation. As the monks commemorated this
"Translation of St. Edmund "in their annual round of Church festivals, a
history of it forms one of the lessons in an old breviary in the library of Clare
College, Cambridge, and has been used for the compilation of this section.
Lcland ("Collect.," vol. i. p. 247) enumerating the various translations,
writes, " Quinta per Abbatem Baldwinum qui corpus Sti Edmundi a capella
rotunda in novam basilicam .... transtulit."]

Abbot Leofstan's hands remained crippled for the
rest of his life, and he sought no cure for them.

11 Quoted from a witty monk in Gillingwater's "Account of
Bury," p. 111.

192 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

When, however, other infirmities seized him, he
besought St. Edward the Confessor, a devout client

Baldwin the of St. Edmund, to send him the monk Baldwin, a
well-known physician of the court. Baldwin, after
receiving the Benedictine habit at St. Denis', Paris,
and later on while prior of Liberaw in Alsace, had
studied medicine with marked success. " Gretly
expert in crafte of medycine," he acquired fame in
the healing art throughout France. The Confessor
invited him to England, and, on his appointment to
the priorship of Deerhurst in Gloucester, a cell of
St. Denis', continually had him at court. At the
king's wish he now repaired to St. Edmund's abbey
and succeeded in curing Leofstan of all his infirmities
save the distortion of the hands. That defied his
art. When, however, he heard the history of the
deformity, he acknowledged his helplessness in the
presence of the supernatural, and, filled with
admiration of St. Edmund, desired to end his
days under the shadow of the martyr's earthly
presence.

He is elected After Leofstan's death the Confessor invited the

abbot, ni i -YTT-

prior and some of the monks to Windsor and recom-
mended Baldwin to them as abbot. They adopted
the king's suggestion. Baldwin was ordained priest
in the royal presence on the feast of the Assump-
tion of our Lady, 1065, and took possession of the
abbatial chair. The monks found no reason to regret
their choice. Baldwin proved himself a firm and
able ruler. He was energetic yet prudent in his
government, and continued after the Conquest to
stand in high favour both at the court of the
Conqueror and at that of his son.

And builds the He gave two substantial proofs of his combined
great church. ^c^ ^^ energy_ jn an appeal to Eome he success-
fully vindicated the privileges of his abbey against

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR. 193

Bishop Herfast, l and he raised the grand and
magnificent church over the relics of St. Edmund
which until the sixteenth century ranked as the
largest basilica north of the Alps after Cologne
cathedral. It was the age of vast cathedrals. Bald-
win had seen the huge minsters lifting themselves
over the roofs of each little market-town in
Normandy. Archbishop Lanfranc was building at
Canterbury, and the guardians of St. Cuthbert had
commenced the majestic structure of Durham. Bald-
win determined to rival Canterbury and Durham.
He represented to the Conqueror the inferiority of
Ailvvin's church2 and proposed to raise a more
stately pile over the shrine of the patron of East
Anglia, the king and father of his country. Pleased
with the abbot's devotion, William confirmed and
extended the privileges of the monastery and thus
guaranteed the necessary funds. He issued a royal
mandate to the abbot of Peterborough, exhorting him
to allow the abbot of St. Edmund's to take out
sufficient stone from the quarries of Barnack in
Northamptonshire for the erection of the new church
and to exempt it from thelonium, or the usual toll
chargeable on its carriage. Queen Matilda helped
on the work by giving St. Edmund the manor of
Wereketone. Stone-masons and plasterers were hired

1 Bishops of Tlietford (vide note, pp. 148-9): —

HERFAST or ARFAST, A.D. 1070, was the last bishop of
Elmham. By order of a council held by Lanfranc, all bishops'
sees had to be removed from villages to the most eminent cities
in their dioceses. Herfast therefore removed his from Elmham
to Tlietford, intending afterwards, though he was hindered by
Baldwin's appeal to Rome, to remove it to Bury. He was
succeeded in the see of Thetford by

WILLIAM GALSAGUS, BELFOGUS or DE BELLO FAGO, Christmas
day, 1085. William died in 1091.

2 Which probably resembled St. Michael's, Oxford, or St.
Benet's, Cambridge.

194 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

and skilled builders and sculptors brought from Italy
and Normandy. For close on thirty years, under
the supervision of the sacrists, Brothers Thurstan
and Tolinus, a crowd of workmen laboured at the
new edifice. During the course of the work the
stern Conqueror passed to his rest, and, when the
presbytery was finished, Baldwin applied to his suc-
The presbytery cessor William Rufus for his favour and that of the

being finished,

Baldwin pie- great men of the realm, in order that with due

pares for its

thetonsikurm honour and solemnity they might dedicate the basi-

lic*! sa li°a and translate into it the precious body of

St. Edmund. Rufus was then at Hastings attending
the dedication of Battle Abbey, while he awaited a
fair wind to cross to Normandy. At first he con-
sented to both the abbot's requests. The advent of
Baldwin, however, had given rise to an irreverent

some malicious discussion among the courtiers and royal mercenaries

men question

the saint's in- on fc]ie continued incorruption of the martyr's body.

corruption. • »

Some contended that from the number of times on
which it had been seen and touched no doubt of
its integrity could be reasonably entertained. Others
mocked at the tradition and suggested that, since
the body must have gone to dust, the wealth lavished
on the shrine should be used for payment of the
king's troops. The argument so moved the red
monarch that he withdrew his permission for the
dedication, and left England without formally approv-
ing of the translation.
wakeiin, bishop But in the same year, A.D. 1095, on Wednesday,

of Winchester, _ , ,. ,•,•-, j i • »)

and Ralph, the April the 2otli, at the third tax-gathering, says

king's chaplain,

arrive at the the old breviary, two royal commissioners arrived

abbey.

-at the abbey on king's business, viz., Wakeiin bishop
of Winchester and the royal chaplain, Ralph Flambard,
then "regalium provisor et exactor vectigalium," or
Chancellor of the Realm. Certain influential persons
now hinted that the most important " king's business**

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 195

which these royal servants could transact would be
the translation to the presbytery of the new church
of " the precious, undefiled and uncorrupted body of
the most glorious king and martyr, Saint Edmund."
Thus the conqueror had saluted it in his charter,
and the commissioners now announced that his suc-
cessor had appointed them to conduct its formal
translation. Baldwin, who all along had recom-

i i ,. ,-. ... .-^ ,, . ..,, , The translation

mended patiently waiting (rod s time, when notified is arranged.
of this, answered, " God's will and the holy martyr's
be done." Herbert, bishop of the diocese, however,
protested that they were encroaching on his juris-
diction, but the abbot produced the bull of exemption
from episcopal control which he had obtained from
Pope Alexander II. and other decrees, and straight-
way invited Bishop Wakelin to preside at the
ceremony to the total exclusion of Herbert. l

The saintly Baldwin next exhorted all his religious Baldwin exhorts

all to prepare

to make ready by greater purity of heart and by fo

1 Bishops of Norwich, (vide p. 193) : —

HERBERT DE LOSINGA, successor of William Galsagus in the
see of Thetford, at first prior of Fescamp in Normandy, and
afterwards abbot of Ramsey, is said to have procured his see
by simony in 1091, for which Rome 'afterwards called him to
account. He obtained leave from the Pope while at Rome, in
order to put an end to all pretensions over St. Edmund's Bury, to
tix the East Anglian see at Norwich, where he laid the foundation-
stone of his cathedral in 1096. He built his palace on the north
side and the monastery on the south. In 1101 he got together
sixty of his Benedictine brethren to serve the church. That
Norwich, however, was intended for the seat of the bishopric before
the time of Herbert of Losinga is evident from a passage in the
Domesday survey in which King William the Conqueror is ex-
pressly said to have given fourteen mansurne to Ailmar towards
establishing it there. Blomeh'eld, who took considerable pains
to collect the particulars of Herbert of Losinga's life, says :
"After he had settled his foundations thoroughly, and adorned
his church with all manner of garments and robes [by which he
probably meant vestments], books, and other necessaries, he
departed this life in the year 1119 on the 22nd day of July, and

196 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

deep and earnest devotion for the day of translation.
He impressed upon the two commissioners the sacred-
ness of the occasion as he transacted business with
them, and he warned them not to incur the historical
anger of St. Edmund by any arrogance or injustice
towards his servants. The commissioners entered into
the ceremonies with a deep sense of the responsibility of
their position. The bishop put aside all secular busi-
ness and on the Friday and Saturday joined the monks
in fasting and prayer. He moreover spent the night
previous to the translation kneeling before the body
of the saint, reciting the psalter with his attendants and
ardently praying to be made more worthy of his office-
The translation On Sunday, April the 29th, at the hour for terce,

takes place in . » i i

the presence of nine o clock, the bishop, vested in pontificals, accom-

a great multi-
tude of people panied by Abbot Baldwin and his monks, proceeded

to the old basilica. The crowds of men and women x
who during the last three days had flocked to the
town filled the church and the adjoining churchyard.
The bishop first blessed the holy water and sprinkled
the altars and the clergy and people. The shrine
or covering was next removed, and the coffin exposed
to view. In a low tone the pontiff began the anti-
phon " Iste sanctus," 2 and the monks around con-
tinued it : — " This saint strove for the law of his
God even unto death. He feared not the gibes of
the impious, for he was founded upon a strong rock."

was buried in his own cathedral before the high altar." (" Hist,
of Norfolk," vol. ii. p. 333).

ROGER DE SKERING, or SCARNING, is the only other bishop
of Norwich who is particularly connected with St. Edmund's
Bury, to whose sanctuary he fled on Norwich being sacked by the
disinherited barons, A.D. 1266. He was the 12th bishop of the see.

1 Herman contrasts this presence of women round the shrine of
St. Edmund with their absence near that of St. Cuthbert. For
many years they were not allowed to enter Durham cathedral.

2 Ant. Mag. in Communi unius Martyris.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAItTYE. 197

With pious emotion the bishop incensed the coffin,

then bade the father of the monastery call forward

the six monks chosen to carry upon their shoulders

the " chest containing the precious pearl over which,

after three hundred years, nay, after a thousand

years, corruption cannot lord it." At the same time

were translated the relics of St. Botulph and St.

Firminus, whose shrines the sacrists Thurstan and also translated-

Tolinus had newly carved, to stand sentinel on each

side of St. Edmund. Thus with great pomp they bore

the holy king and martyr to the new basilica.

When the procession came to the low and narrow in the crush a

soldier from

south-door or the old church, the weight of the Northampton

is injured, but

martyr's body nearly overpowered the bearers. The nui^ulously
crowd rushed forward to help, and in the crush the
arm of a soldier from Northampton l was wedged in
between the coffin and the wall, so that the stone jamb
grazed the flesh off the bone from the wrist to the
elbow. Fearing the blood might soil the church or the
pavement of the sanctuary, the soldier wrapped the
injured arm in the soft fur of his military cloak.
Meanwhile the clergy placed the martyr's relics on the
porphyry altar which Pope Alexander had given to our
Lady and St. Edmund. A sermon followed, 2 the bishop
coming forth into the churchyard to preach to the
people on the virtues and power of St. Edmund.
While he was delivering his stirring address, the

1 "Miles Hani tuniensis. " The county of Northampton was gene-
rally called Hampton. Ingram remarks (" Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,"
Bohn's edition, note, p. 471) that Southampton was named
Hampton to distinguish it from Northampton town, but the
common people to this day say " Hampton " in both neighbour-
hoods. See " Chronicle of Ramsey," Rolls Publ., pp. 93-167, and
" Chronicon Petroburgense," Camden Series, vol. 47. MS. Titus
A. viii. leaves no doubt that the soldier was from Northampton.

2 Herman implies there were two sermons, one in the church
and one in the churchyard : — " In altaris crepidine fit sermo de
sancta fide ; pnesul deforis in atrio verbum facit populo."

198 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

soldier, sitting in the church, timidly examined his arm
and to his astonishment found it healed, a scar alone
remaining in testimony of the miracle.
The saint's body Bishop Wakelin's words moved his hearers to have

is borne outside

the church, and recourse to the royal martyr to end the terrible

the long drought

ceases. drought which then afflicted the country. The dry-

ness of the season " was so excessive," says the " Liber
Ccenobii," " that the green corn, the grass, the early
foliage, were parched for want of rain. The neces-
saries of human life seemed in danger of perishing."
" Famine," writes another chronicler, " threatened
Britain." 1 " Cannot Edmund," murmured the people,
" help us in our necessity ? " The general desire
reached the bishop's ears. Interrupting his sermon,
he caused the martyr's relics to be again carried
forth in procession from the church and placed in
the open air upon a heap of stones on an elevated
spot. Then he again addressed the crowd on the
merits of St. Edmund and the interest which he had
ever taken in their welfare. The holy martyr stood in
the presence of God to propitiate the Divine anger.
Let them rouse their faith and call upon him for
the long-needed rain. With a loud voice the bishop
then thrice intoned the " Kyrie Eleison," and thrice the
people repeated it " with voices discordant but with
desires in harmony." And, " Behold, while they prayed
to God, the saint also pleaded with Him. The
heavens became overclouded, drops of grateful rain
fell upon their face." 2 "A sudden fall of rain com-
pelled those out of doors to seek shelter."3 And,
" Never in the memory of man did such abundance
rejoice the heart of farmers as during that year." 4

Theibishop pro- After the sermon the bishop gave his blessing

claims an indul-

Sy'avaTihich and granted an indulgence,5 which he extended to

themselves.

Cott. MS. Titus A. viii. - Herman. 3 Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.
" Liber Coenobii." 5 Herman and Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 199

those absent who, within a given time, should visit
the saint, a favour of which many throughout England
availed themselves. " With praise and glory the
holy martyr of God now took possession of his new
resting-place, and there the solemn mass was ponti-
fically celebrated."1

" While this was taking place, a man from London, f >nan ft;ow

' London lias

approaching the heap of stones on which the coffin llis eye cuml<
had reposed, piously kissed it, and with the stones
touched his forehead and eyes. At the same time
he called upon the name of Edmund from the bottom
of his heart. Straightway a growth upon his eye from
which he had suffered for a long time disappeared."
" Thus," so runs the ancient lesson for the feast of
this translation of St. Edmund, " in the year — the
225th from his passion — and on the day aforesaid,
to the great joy of the people, for the perpetual
memory of the whole English nation, and for the
glory of all the saints, the incorrupt body of the
blessed martyr St. Edmund was translated, to rise in
the future to eternal happiness."

§ 12. TOLINUS THE SACRIST, THE SIXTH WITNESS OP ST.
EDMUND'S INCORRUPTION, WITH THREE OTHERS VERIFIES THE
SACRED BODY IN THE REIGN OP ABBOT BALDWIN, A.D.
1094-95.

\Aitthorities— The following is a digest of Section 5, Book II.. of the Cottonian
Manuscript Titus A. viii. The writer, Osbert de Clare, prior of Westminster,
A.D. 1130, speaks as a contemporary of the noble lady Seietha, from whom he
heard the narrative. This event is also chronicled in Bodl. 240 f. 650.]

" Many people as well as myself know personally The recluse

i ,i T • a • j.1 IT Seietha, a n<

or by report the religious woman Seietha, who lives lady, who ki
a celibate life by the shrine of St. Edmund. Now
far advanced in years and clothed in a nun's habit,

1 Herman and Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.

200

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Relates how
St. Edmund
healed her
right hand.

she had as a girl at home refused the hand of the
noblest and most illustrious Englishmen, in order to
seek a heavenly spouse. The evil tempter, as the
holy woman was wont to tell her near friends,
appeared to her in sleep and tried to move her from
her purpose. But she replied : ' My Lord Jesus Christ
have T chosen for my spouse ; to Him have I vowed
myself, to Him have I promised to preserve myself
inviolate.' Sighing after the cloistral life, she travelled
through the different counties of England, asking ad-
mission at all the convents of virgins. Everywhere
the crafty enemy prevented her entrance. Therefore
it happened that she came to St. Edmund's at Abbot
Baldwin's invitation — yea, rather at the call of Christ
— and rested there.

" From her own lips we have heard the following
introduction to the rest of her story. ' One night,'
she used to relate, ' I went out, leaning on my com-
panion's arm, to attend matins. On coming to the
yard through which we had to pass, I first opened
the door and held it open for my companion ; but,
although I tried to let it close gradually, the violence
of the wind slammed it to, and crushed my right
hand. The pain rendered me insensible, and I lay
prostrate on the ground, while my companion, igno-
rant of the accident, remained stupefied by my side.
When I recovered a little, I did not give up my
undertaking. Afterwards, however, on returning home
with the swollen hand in my breast, I found the
bone of my middle finger broken. Although in time
it grew better, a swelling about the size of a nut
remained over the place of the fracture, and per-
manently disfigured the hand. One evening, as I
kept my accustomed watch in the church, I quietly
approached the spot where I knew the holy martyr
rested, and, stretching out my deformed hand towards

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 201

the shrine, I said in all simplicity : See, my lord,
whether this swelling becomes thy handmaid. If it
be thy will, I ask thee to take it away. I then with-
drew from the asylum of the saint's presence. Next
day, when I examined the finger, as I often did,
the deformity was gone.' There are many surviving
to this day who can vouch for the truth of this story,
which does not rest merely on Seietha's evidence.

" At the same time she used to add the following : Joiinus the

Sacrist was her

'Under the rule of Abbot Baldwin the venerable ^Su^uide.

monk Tolinus lived in the monastery. In his life

and conversation he was an edification to many, a

mirror of innocence and a law of justice, and so he

merited to be appointed to the office of sacrist. By

word and example he endeavoured to allure all to a

love of the heavenly country. Hence if any good

can ever be in me or could have been, I owe it to

his instructions and exhortations.

" ' In the same year in which the translation of The same year

as the great

our most holy Father Edmund from the old church translation took

place,

to the new basilica took place — the translation which
is yearly commemorated on April the 29th — after the
solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, I held frequent
colloquies with Tolinus when I visited the church
for prayer and edification. One clay, as he spoke to June 29, ion-,,
me before the altar of St. John the Baptist on the
contempt of the world, a sweet memory of St. Edmund
which he ever cherished in his breast came to his
lips. With eyes cast down I listened, and then per-
versely asked, How is it, my father, : that we maintain
his incorruption, when most contend that he has
succumbed to decay ? For three days ago, as I made
my way hither to implore his intercession, a certain venatonrfr?11*

. . , , . specting the

knight who met me, in the course of conversation incorruption

of the martyr's

questioned the integrity of the martyr and denied it. ^dy.
1 " Domine mi."

202 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

Nay ! I said to him. You err. Believe by acknow-
ledging it, and acknowledge by believing it. Even
as on the day he was crowned with martyrdom, so
at the present is he incorrupt and entire. This I
say in accordance with the common belief. For as
yet I know no other argument to gainsay the calum-
nies of the incredulous. On hearing this Tolinus
sighed : Alas, my most dear friend, how grievously
they err who doubt on this point. They ought rather
to believe the omnipotence of God and admire His
clemency. Would you like them waver in your
faith ? I have no doubt, I replied, about the power
of the Almighty, but I have never yet found the
man who can satisfy me in this controversy. He
answered, Will you accept my testimony in this
altercation ? No argument, I replied, can tear from
my heart what your inviolable word has confirmed.
Toiinus assures Then stretching forth both his hands, he said : These
three others had impure and unworthy hands have touched his sacred

handled the in-
corrupt body, limbs. These irreverent eyes have gazed upon his

sweet and graceful face. Remembering that some
bodies embalmed with aromatic spices have subsisted
incorrupt, I feared not to boldly examine that body.
And even as here you see my flesh, so equally soft and
yielding flesh clothes the joints of St. Edmund's
body. I confess I foolishly and presumptuously did
it. May He pardon me who has granted me space
up to now to repent ! And that there might be other
witnesses I had associates in my deed, to wit, Dom
William the prior, by whose authority and request
I acted, and Sparawech my assistant, and Here ward
the goldsmith. Shortly after hearing this, I bade
farewell to the man of God, whom nevermore was I
to see on earth.

The sudden " ' The three whom that venerable man mentioned as

ronr witnesses, his accomplices not long after fell mortally sick and

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAltTYK. 20o'

confessed their rashness on their death-bed. None
of them lived the year out. Tolinus indeed ex-
ceeded the term allotted to the others who had
proved the martyr's incorruption, but on the feast J™.e 1T. A-u-
of St. Botulph following, whilst he walked one
early morn on the summit of the walls of the
ehurcli inspecting the work, he suddenly fell head-
long off. Nevertheless the divine clemency did not
utterly desert him. For his habit caught in one of
the scaffold poles which supported the planks. Some
of the stonemasons, hoping to rescue him unhurt,
quickly mounted the ladders. But too late. For,
the hem of his habit giving way, lie fell on a heap
of stones underneath. The workmen took him up
half dead and with his limbs broken in several places
by the severe collision. He lingered long enough
to confess his aforementioned presumption and to
receive the holy viaticum. Then he breathed his
last in the midst of his brethren. I was overcome
with grief on hearing the news three days after, and
I begged my father abbot to let me approach the
corpse of my dearest friend. Unwilling at first, he
at length granted my request on account of my im-
portunity and because he saw that I was prompted
only by a religious motive. While the brethren
performed the last obsequies, I busily recited the
psalter for the soul of my friend. Now at sunset one
evening, I was sitting in the church with the per-
mission of the guardians, saying my office for his
soul, and whilst I recited the 80th psalm in which
the prophet admonishes us to exult in God, our helper,
slumber overcame me, the codex slipped from my
hand, my eyes closed and my head leaned against
the wall at my back. Suddenly some one seized me „,

• Tolinus appears

by the shoulders and shook me violently, saying : to her in sloep-
Will you sleep, while your dearest friend Tolinus

204 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

suffers bitter pains ? I awoke, and the vision

vanished, but the impression of his fingers remained,

and I feel them now, though you can see nothing.

He n-veais to a " ' About the same time and before the thirty days

irreverent hami- from his death had elapsed, Tolinus appeared in sleep

ling of the saint „ .

is the cause of to one or the brethren with whom he had been most

his detention in

purgatory. familiar during life. By reason of their old friend-
ship the monk ventured to address the vision : Why,
my father, do I behold you darksome and bent with
sorrow ? Tolinus answered : Because I am not yet
n't to enter into the glory of the uncircumscribed
light. And why, asked the monk, since you led
a blameless life here ? The vision replied : I am
punished because I dared to handle my lord Edmund
with an unbelieving mind and to expose him to
others to be handled. Therefore I beseech thy love
to explain this to the brethren without delay, and to
beg them to supplicate the Father of mercies and His
faithful champion for me in my sufferings.

The monks pray "'The brother, rising early, spoke to the assembled

for their dead -11 -fir-

brother and are brethren as he had been admonished. With fraternal

assured after-
wards that he anxiety they condoled with their departed companion

is in glory.

and without delay made every effort to conciliate
the divine justice for him. After a lapse of about
six months Tolinus again appeared to his friend, this
time with a cheerful countenance and clothed with
snow-white garments. And on his brother-monk
asking how it fared with him, he answered : I have
merited to meet with my liedeemer's clemency, and
the grace of my lord Edmund. I now enjoy citizen-
ship with him in heaven, to whom I faithfully minis-
tered on earth. I continue to wait attendance on
him. I see him and I admire his glory.'"

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 205

§ 13. THE SIXTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY
BY ABBOT SAMSON, NOVEMBER 23, A.D. 1198.

[Authorities — The events of this and of the following section immortalized by an
author of some fame in English literature are probably the widest known of
any in St. Edmund's history. They are taken from the " Chronica Jocelini de
Brakelonda de rebus gestis Ssmsonis Abb.itis Monastcrii Sancti Edmundi," a
work edited by Mr. John Rokewood for the Camden Society in 1840, and four
years later translated into English by Mr. E. Tomkins as a specimen of
" Social and Monastic Life in the Twelfth Century." Carlyle in his commen-
tary upon it in "Past and Present" says: "Once written in its childlike
transparency, in its innocent good humour, not without touches of ready
pleasant wit, and many kinds of worth, other men liked naturally to read,
whereby it failed not to be copied, to be multiplied, to be inserted in the
' Liber Albus,' and so, surviving Henry VIII., Putney Cromwell, the dissolu-
tion of Monasteries, and all accidents of malice and neglect for six centuries or
so, it got into the Harleian collection, and has now, therefrom, by Mr.
Rokewood of the Camden Society been deciphered into clear print, and lies
before us a dainty thin quarto, to interest for a few minutes whomsoever it
can." The writer of this interesting piece received the name of Brakelond
from a street or quarter of old St. Edmund's Bury. In 1173 lie entered the Bene-
dictine noviciate, and later on became chaplain to Abbot Samson, his former
novice-master. Jocelin was "an ingenious and ingenuous, a cheery-hearted,
innocent yet withal shrewd, noticing, quick-witted man." He had in fact
that wise monastic simplicity which looks from under the monk's cowl with
" much natural sense." A fellow-monk speaks of him as " eximi;e religionis,
potens sermone et opere." " Living beside my lord abbot, night and day for
the space of six years," he became his Boswell, making him live again
"visible and audible" for the benefit of moderns. Samson, who regarded
himself as nothing if not the lirst servant and attendant of St. Edmund, after
a fire in the vicinity of the shrine in 1198, translates and verifies his patron's
relics. His faithful chaplain records all that happens with "a veracity
which goes deeper than words." No more reliable authority can therefore be
desired for this part of the great martyr's history.]

Before attaining the dignity of mitred abbot of St. Samson of

Tottinghum

Edmund's Bury, Samson of Tottingliam proved him-
self a man of no ordinary character. After his
return from studying at Paris he could preach in
three languages, and no more efficient teacher could
be found for the town-school. In the time of the
antipopes, when business was to be done with the
true pope at Home, monk Samson was chosen to do
it. Disguising himself as a Scotchman, he reached
his destination in safety, and returned, though too
late, with his cause won. Through no fault of his
he could not always bene stare cum ctbbate — stand well
with the abbot, — for time-server and flatterer he would
not be. When, however, he came to be better under-
stood, Abbot Hugo made him subsacrist, librarian,
novice-master.

206 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

His character He had been well schooled and had learnt some-

aiid appearance

thing of human nature, and so he discharged his
offices to perfection. But he remained all the while
unchanged. At severity he had not complained, at
kindness he did not break out into smiles and thanks.
Abbot Hugo says that he has " never seen such a
man." In this way, always right-honest, dutiful,
grave, devout, Samson readied his seven-and-fortieth
year. His make resembled his character. He was
not tall and slim, but stout-made, erect and solid
as one of the massive Norman towers of his own
church. Nearly bald, with a face neither round nor
yet long, black and slightly curly hair somewhat hoary,
a grizzled reddish beard slightly tinged with grey,
a prominent nose, thick lips, and from under bushy
but lofty eye-brows two clear and very piercing eyes,
he did not therefore present an unpleasant appear-
ance, for kindliness of heart softened his features
and mellowed the resolution of his face. Altogether
he inspired confidence rather than fear, so that, when
Abbot Hugo was killed by a fall from his horse on
his way to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury,
the monks, trying to make up their minds, flitting
from one proper person to another, seemed mostly
to revert to Brother Samson as the future abbot.

When King Henry II., still repentant for the
The election of murder of Archbishop Thomas, decided to grant St.

Abbot Samson, „ , ,. . i ,_• i j i_i

Feb. 2i,A.D. Edmunds convent a free election, he summoned the
prior and his twelve to meet him at Bishop Waltham
in Hampshire. By Brother Samson's advice, before
leaving home, an electoral committee chose in secret
three names of members of their own abbey, which
they gave in a sealed paper to the prior and their
other deputies. When the king called for three
names, they broke the seal and read out the three
names. Samson's stood first. The king orders them

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTVK. 207

to nominate three others of their own community,
and they do so without hesitation. Astonished at
their expedition, the king says, "God is with them."
But for the honour of his realm he bids them add
three monks of other convents ; then to strike off
three ; to strike off another three, and lastly to strike
off one. Samson and the prior are left. Venerable
Brother Denis the cellarer in the name of the rest
discusses the merits of these two. He praises both
as good men, of regular life, learned, but he ever
puts Samson forward " in angulo sui sermonis " — in
the corner of his speech. The presiding bishop of
Winchester interrupts. " We see clearly what you
wish to say. It is evident you consider your prior
somewhat lax and you prefer Samson. Of two
good men you must choose the best. Speak out, do
you want Samson ? " The majority answer, " Volu-
inus Samsonem " — " We want Samson. " A few
keep silence, so as not to offend either candidate
So Samson is nominated and presented at once to the
king, who accepts him : " I know him not," says
Henry ; " your prior I know, and I would have accep-
ted him ; but as you wish. If your choice does
badly, per veros oculos Dei,1 I warn you, you shall
repent of it." The prior answered the king that
Samson deserved even greater honours. The new
abbot knelt and kissed the royal feet, then, quickly
rising and quickly turning towards the altar, he
(intoned in clear tenor voice the " Miserere mei Deus,"
chanting it with his brethren with head erect and
unchanged countenance. " That man," exclaimed the
king in astonishment, " believes himself fit to guard
his abbey."

Seven days later, on the 28th of February, Samson,
was blessed by the bishop of Winchester. He

1 A common oath of the Norman kings.

208 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

announced his intention of arriving at St. Edmund's

ay Bur7 on tae Palm Sunday following to take possession
March 21, ii82: of hig abbey Qn thafc day the bells of gfc Edmund's

rent the air with their clangour, and the pealing of
the organ echoed through the arches of the grand
abbey. Knight and viscount, weaver and spinner,
shopman and burgess, stately dame and homely
housewife, chubby infants and old men, hastened out
to see the lord abbot arrive. He stood at the gates,
while they stripped off his sandals, and they solemnly
led him barefoot to the high altar and to the shrine-
On the sudden silence of bell and organ, monks and
people kneel in prayer, and the lord abbot prostrates.
Bell and organ again burst forth, while the " Te
Deum " is chanted by all in the vast minster, and
Samson is abbot.
Abbot Samson's Without delay he attacked the difficult work before

government.

him. The dilapidated monastery needed repairing,
the boundless debts clearing off. The harpy Jews
and their bonds had to be banished St. Edmund's
liberties, l and dissatisfied monks to be managed.
Neither did he neglect the national duties of his high
position. At one time he marched with his men to
oppose John's pretensions during the absence of his
brother Cceur-de-Lion ; at another he sat in parliament,
making generous sacrifices for liichard's redemption, but
daring peers spiritual or temporal — those who would —
to. lay hands on St. Edmund's shrine. Sixteen years
thus passed away in earnest work. He had built and
restored hospitals and schools ; he had raised good
dwellings for the people ; he had repaired all that
was ruinous, completed churches and church-steeples,
and built up anew the great tower of St. Edmund's
church.

One thing remained undone — the dearest to the
1 Tliis was necessary to protect them from the populace.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE. 209

great abbot's heart. Long before his hair had turned Samson's devo-

tion to st>
snow-white with worry and work, he had wished Edmund.

to erect a new shrine for St. Edmund. For after
God did he not owe all to him who had singled
him out and saved him in his boyhood to be his
servant ? Jocelin relates a dream which he had
heard from the lips of Samson that shows the
abbot's early indebtedness to the royal martyr's
patronage. When he was a child of nine years old — so
the faithful chaplain writes, — as he lay uneasily in
his little bed at Tottingham, he dreamt that he was
standing before a noble and stately gateway, when
the arch-fiend with black-webbed wings swooped
down, and with clawed hands would have gripped
him, had not St. Edmund, who stood by, snatched
him up in his arms. Whereupon the little sleeper
shrieked out, " St. Edmund, save me ! " and thus,
while he called upon him whose name he had
never heard, devil and dream passed away. His
mother, alarmed at the outcry and the accompanying
dream, took the little boy on the morrow to pray
before St. Edmund's shrine. At the sight of the
cemetery gate, l the Norman gate of Abbot Baldwin,
the child cried out, " See, mother, this is the place,
this is the gate which I saw in my dream, when
the devil was about to seize me." He recognised
the place, he said afterwards, just as if he had
actually seen it before with his natural eyes. His
eood mother there and then dedicated him to St.

Edmund and with prayers and tears left him in
care of the monks. In after days Samson was wont
to thus interpret his dream : the demon with sable
outstretched wings foreshadowed the sin and pleasure
of this world, which would have made him their
own had not St. Edmund flung his arms around
1 Which is still left standing.

210 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

him and made him one of his monks. From the
day of that dream Samson ever looked up to St.
Edmund as his special father and friend.
He has recourse At the time of the antipopes. when Geoffrey Eidel

to him in time

of trial. laid claim to the benefice of Woolpit, Samson was

sent to the true pope, Alexander II., to defend the
rights of the abbey. He ran considerable risks, for

AD 1159 to 1102 ^ne emPeror's Party > which supported the antipope
Octavian, waylaid all clerks carrying letters of Pope
Alexander. They would imprison or hang them, or
cut off their lips and noses and send them back to
the pope. However, by acting as a Scot, l and after
many sufferings and adventures, Samson saw the
pope and won his cause, and got back home with
his letter from "our lord the pope." But he found
he was too late, and he sat him down disheartened
and alone in the quiet dim apse under the shadow
of St. Edmund's shrine. " In the wide earth," asks
his eulogist, " if it be not St. Edmund, what friend
or refuge has he ? " There he sat sorrowful and
silent. All his stratagems and disguises had been,
in vain. His mission had failed. Woolpit church
had already been given to Geoffrey Ridel. The
abbot was angry, and therefore no monk or layman
durst speak to weary Samson or bring him food
except by stealth. Only God and St. Edmund con-
soled him at that moment and afterwards, when the
abbot's officers imprisoned him for his tardiness,,
though it was no fault of his. When he rose to-
favour later and became sub-sacrist, he did not forget
his patron, and collected money and materials to erect
something for St. Edmund, but the king's officers pro-
hibited all spending of funds during the vacancy 2 except
for the reduction of the debt. On becoming abbot he-

1 The Scottish kingdom sided with Octavian.

2 After Abbot Hugo's death.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 211

determined to repair the church, yet twelve years passed
before, by careful management^ he] freed the abbey
from debt. At last he said he would stay more at
home, " for the presence of the master is the profit
of the field, " l and devote himself to claustral affairs.
The church needed his whole care. He had sacri-
ficed many things for King Kichard's ransom — among
other precious ornaments the silver table of the high
altar. He now resolved to construct something
which could not possibly be abstracted and where
no sacrilegious thief would venture — a new and
rich shrine over St. Edmund's body.

Accordingly he directed the preparation of a most Samson's design

for a new shrine.

valuable outer covering, or feretry, to contain the loculus,
or coffin. He arranged that the panels should be all
of beaten gold inlaid with gems, and the roof and
gables crested with delicately worked battlements.
To support this gorgeous outer shell, he designed
a pedestal of blocks of polished marble, sculptured
into miniature pillars, and arches, and pinnacles and
crochets. Whilst the abbot planned and designed all
this, an event occurred which brought about its speedy
execution. The devout and reverential Jocelin thus
relates it:

"In the year of grace 1198, a great panic seized The high ait»r

aloft on which

the convent, and the glorious Martyr Edmund raised stands the

shrine is

it, for he wished to make us learn to keep his are™26*1 by
sacred body more diligently and reverently than we
had hitherto done. A wooden platform covered the
space between the shrine and the altar, 2 and upon
it the guardians of the shrine kept two tapers

1 "Pnesentia Domini provectus est agri." "The eye of the
master maketh the ox fat," "The eye of the master does more
work than his hands," are similar proverbs,

8 The shrine stood behind and above the table of the altar as a
kind of reredos, and in front of it hung the golden " Majestas," or
vessel in which the Blessed Sacrament was reserved.

212

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR;

constantly burning, clapping new candles upon the old
in a slovenly manner. Under the platform, flax and
thread, wax ends, rags, and various utensils were
unbecomingly huddled away. In fact, whatever the
guardians of the shrine used they put there out of
the way, and concealed all behind a door with iron
gratings.

Oct. 17. " One night, the eve of the feast of St. Etheldreda,

while the guardians were asleep, a candle which
they had carelessly fixed upon another fell, while
still alight, upon the platform. The linen cloths at
once caught fire, which soon spread to the wood-
work and the wax and rubbish underneath. Lo !
the wrath of the Lord ' was kindled,' l but not without
mercy, according to that, ' In wrath He remembered
mercy.' 2 For just then the clock struck the hour
for matins, though it was not yet time, and when
the master of the vestiary got up, he noticed the
unusual glare of fire around the shrine and ran to
strike the gong as if for the dead. At the same
time he cried at the top of his voice that the shrine
was on fire. We rushed to the church, where we
found that the fire was burning fiercely, the
flames actually encircling the whole shrine, and
mounting almost to the beams of the church-roof.
Our juniors ran for water, some to the well, some
to the clock ; 3 others with great difficulty smothered
the flames with their cowls or rescued from destruc-
The feretry or tion the sanctuary furniture. When they threw the
narrowly es- cold water upon the heated stones, it crumbled them

eaped destruc-

tion> to dust ; the wood underneath the plates of silver

was charred to the thickness of my finger, leaving

1 Numb. xi. 33. 2 Habac. iii. 2.

3 This little incident shows that the abbey-clock was worked by
water.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 213

the nails standing out, and the plates themselves

hung loose, having lost the support of the nails

that fastened them. The golden majestas in front

of the shrine, with some of the stone-work, remained

undamaged. If anything, the majestas, being all of

gold, looked brighter than before. Providentially And the rood

the great beam behind the altar had been removed and

for fresh carving. It supported the crucifix and our

Lady and St. John, and on it rested other sacred

and precious objects. The chest containing St.

Edmund's camisia, and some other reliquaries and

relics generally hung from the beam. All, however,

had been previously removed, otherwise they would

have been burnt like the tapestry, which hung in

the place of the beam. What would it have been,

had the church been curtained ? Having made sure

that the fire had not penetrated to the sacred coffin,

we next carefully examined if there were any chinks

or cracks.

" When all had cooled, and our anxiety had in a §t. Edmund's
great measure subsided, behold ! some of the brethren unfnjured"
exclaimed with plaintive voice that St. Edmund's
cup was destroyed. A search amongst the debris of
stones and cinders brought to light the cup unin-
jured and perfect, lying amongst pieces of charred
wood, and wrapped up in a half-burnt linen cloth.
The fire had burnt to ashes the oaken box which
had enclosed it, leaving only the iron band and iron
lock. We wept for joy at the marvellous preserva-
tion of the cup.

" We now saw that the greater number of the metal The damage
plates which faced the shrine were stripped off. is repaired"10
While therefore we blamed the disgraceful sloven-
liness of the keepers, we all agreed to secretly call
in the goldsmith to our assistance, and to make him
join together the metal plates and fix them again

214 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

to the shrine, in order to avoid scandal. At the
same time we removed all traces of the fire. But,
as the evangelist bears witness : ' There is nothing
covered that shall not be revealed.' l Very early
in the morning some pilgrims came to make their
offerings, and, although they could perceive no vestige
of the fire, yet some of them, peering about, asked
where it had broken out, for the news had already
spread. Since we could not altogether conceal the
fact, we answered these prying folk that a candle
had fallen down and burnt three napkins, and that
the heat of the flames had damaged the stone-work
in front of the shrine. Yet some spread the rumour
that the saint's head was burnt, while others said
that the hair only was singed. The truth after-
wards became known, and the mouth was stopped of
them that spoke wicked things. 2 All this happened
by the providence of God, in order to teach us to
keep more becomingly the shrine and its surround-
ings ; and also to enable our lord abbot to more
speedily and thoroughly fulfil his desire of placing
the holy martyr's body in security and honour in a
more prominent position. Already before this un-
fortunate accident, the golden crest-work was half
completed, and the marble blocks on which the
feretry was to be raised were nearly all prepared
and polished.

The shnne or " By the f east of St. Edmund everything was ready.
The feast fell on Friday. On the Sunday following3

high altar, Nov.

20,1198. a three days' fast was proclaimed to the people

and its object explained to them. The abbot himself
exhorted the brethren to prepare themselves for the
removal of the shrine to the high altar, on which it
was to stand, while the masons erected its base of

1 St. Luke xii. 2. 2 Pa. Ixii. 12.

3 I.e., the Sunday within the Octave.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 215

marble. The abbot arranged the time and manner
of carrying out the work. That night, when we
came to matins, we found the large feretry standing
upon the altar. It was empty and lined with white
doe-skins fixed to the wood with silver nails, and
one panel was removed and placed on one side
against a pillar. The holy body lay in its usual
place at the back of the altar.

" After chanting lauds we took our disciplines. The coverings

are taken off the

Then the lord abbot with some of the brethren coffln or loculus-

vested in albs, approached the coffin with becoming

reverence, and proceeded to uncover it. An outer

linen cloth enveloped all. We found this tied on

the upper side with strings of its own. A silken

cloth was next folded round the coffin, then another

linen cloth, and then a third, after which

the coffin stood exposed. It rested upon a little

wooden tray to prevent injury from the marble.

Affixed to the outside over the martyr's breast lay

a golden angel about the length of a man's foot,

holding in one hand a golden sword and in the other

a banner ; under this we saw the hole in the lid

through which the ancient keepers put their hands

for the purpose of touching the sacred body. Over

the figure of the angel ran this superscription :

/foartirts ecce soma servat /nbicbaelfs agalma. 1
" Near the figure of the angel we found the silk
bag wherein Ailwin, the bishop and monk,
deposited the schedule written in English, which
contained certain salutations or devout praises of
St. Edmund.

" Now iron rings projected from the ends of the
coffin in Norman fashion.2 The brethren in white

1 " Behold, the Martyr's body St. Michael's image keeps." See
Leland's "Collect.," vol. i. p. 267, the zoma is more correctly
spelt with an s.

- "Incista Norensi."

216 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

The coffin with albs, taking hold of these, carried the coffin to the

the sacred body

s placed within altar. And I lent thereto my sinful hand, although
the shrine. J

the abbot had commanded that none should come
nigh unless called. The coffin was placed within
the shrine, the panel put back and fastened, and
for the present the shrine closed. We all thought
that the abbot would show the coffin to the people,
and some time during the octave of the feast bring
forth the sacred body before us all. In this, how-
ever, we were woefully mistaken, as the following
will show."

§ 14. ABBOT SAMSON, THE SEVENTH WITNESS OF ST.
EDMUND'S INCOERUPTION, Nov. 26, 1198.

[Authorities — The same as for the previous section.]

Samson desires " On Wednesday while the community sang corn-
to look upon St.

Edmund's face, pline, the abbot consulted in private with the sacrist
and Walter the physician regarding the appointment
against midnight of twelve brethren strong enough
to carry the panels of the shrine, and skilful l in
unfixing and refixing them. Moreover the abbot
said that he desired to look upon the face of his
master and to associate with him in that act the sacrist
and Walter the physician. To be present on the occa-
sion he selected his two chaplains, the two keepers of
the shrine, the two masters of the vestiary and six
others, Hugo the sacrist, Walter the physician, Augus-
tine, William of Diss, Eobert and Eichard.

Attended by "When the convent was asleep, these twelve,

twelve of the

opensthe Coffin, dothed in white albs, removed a panel of the shrine,
1 1 Paralipomenon xxii. 15.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 217

and drew out the coffin, which they laid upon a
table prepared for it near the site of the old shrine.
Then they began to take off the lid, which proved
a difficult task, for sixteen long iron nails held it
to the coffin. When this was accomplished, the abbot
motioned all except his two aforenamed associates
to retire a little. Now the sacred body so filled the
coffin, both in length and width, that between the
head and the wood, and between the feet and the
wood, hardly space to put a needle remained. The
head lay united to the body somewhat raised on a
little pillow. The abbot straightway examined the
sacred relics. He found them protected by a silk
cloth over a linen cloth spotlessly white. On the
face rested a small linen cloth over one of very fine
silk, like a nun's veil. The body itself was wrapped
in a linen sheet, under which its outlines were visible.

"Here the abbot paused, and said that he durst The holy body

exposed to view.

not proceed further and look upon the sacred flesh
uncovered. But, taking the head between his hands,
he murmured : ' 0 glorious martyr St. Edmund, blessed
be the hour wherein thou wast born. 0 glorious
martyr, turn not to my perdition my boldness in
touching thee, sinful and miserable as I am. Thou
knowest my devotion and my intention.' And pro-
ceeding he passed his hands over the eyes and the
very massive and prominent nose ; he touched the
breast and arms, and, raising the left hand, put his
fingers between the fingers of the saint. He found
the feet standing stiff upright, like the feet of a man
who had died that day, and he touched the toes
and counted them. 1

1 The following occurred in the Life of St. Thomas of Canter-
bury and is quoted by F. Morris, S.J., in his history of the arch-
bishop, page 576 :

" When he raised from the earth to his shrine the Blessed

218 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

Twenty-two "And now it was proposed to call the other ten

other monks

see the body. forward to see the marvel, and also six others, while
six more stole in without the abbot's leave, viz.,
Walter of St. Alban's, Hugh the infirmarian, Gilbert
the brother of the prior, Eichard of Hingham, Jocell
the cellarer, and Thurstan the Little. All these
looked upon the saint, but Thurstan alone put forth
his hand and touched the feet and knees.

John of Diss and "In order that there might be an abundance of

others look down

from the roof, witnesses the Most High disposed that John of
Diss, sitting in the roof of the church with the
servants of the vestiary, should look down and see
the proceedings."

The soiemness A strange and solemn scene ! The monastery

of the scene.

silent ! The world asleep ! The darkness of night
outside, and a gloom in the long nave of the
church ! One spot alone luminous ! and Brother
John and his assistants, peering down from the roof,
see it, — the flicker of tapers and lamps illumining
a group of white-albed and black-cowled men re-
verently gathered round and bending over the pale
and placid form of the martyr Edmund.

" Let the modern eye look earnestly on that old
midnight hour in St. Edmund's Bury church, shining
yet on us, ruddy bright, through the depths of

Cuthbert, the bishop beloved of God and venerable amongst men,
and touched each of his limbs and his face and all the members
of the saint which had suffered no corruption though 600 years
had passed, for he had lived a virgin from his childhood, faniou
for holiness and miracles, the king asked the archbishop how he
presumed to touch all the members of so great a saint ; on which
the man of God replied — ' Do not wonder, sire, at this, that with
my consecrated hands I have touched him, for far higher is that
sacrament which day by day I, as other priests, handle on the
altar, the blessed Body of Christ, which is committed to three
orders of priests, deacons and subdeacons.' " (" Anecdota Bedse,"
&C., edit. Giles, Caxton Soc., 1851, p. 234.)

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 219

seven hundred years ; and consider mournfully what
our hero worship once was, and what it now is. . . •
On the whole who knows how to reverence the
body of a man ? It is the most reverend phenomenon
under the sun." x Yet the modern world often worships
those whose moral life has been questionable and whose
deeds have not always resulted in unmixed good. Not
so Abbot Samson and his monks in the great church
over the dead martyr endued with Christ's incorruption.
No questionable reverence theirs. If men may worship
any mortal relics, surely they may worship here.

After the abbot and his monks, Jocelin continues'
had indentified the sacred body and satisfied their

The body is

reverence, they replaced the silken and linen cloths cov?red »P
and fastened the lid down again with its sixteen
ancient nails. Then placing the coffin on its wooden
tray, they conveyed it to its ordinary place. On the
lid, close to the figure of the angel, they again deposited
the silk bag containing the monk Ailwin's parchment.
By the abbot's order another document, couched
in the following terms, was penned there and then,
and enclosed in the same packet :

" Bnno ab incarnatione SJomini /lfc°G. nonagestmo octavo,
abbas Samson, tractus oevotfone, corpus Sancti Beomunoi
vioft et tettgft, nocte projima post festum Sanctee IRatber*
ina: bis testibus : " -

Then followed the signatures of eighteen monks.
The brethren now enveloped the whole coffin in a
linen wrapper, and over the linen wrapper they
threw a new and costly covering of silk, which
Hubert archbishop of Canterbury gave as an offering
to St. Edmund that very year. They doubled
lengthways on the stone a linen cloth to keep

1 Carlyle, "Past and Present," pp. 105-107, edit. 1872.

2 "In the year from the Lord's Incarnation MCXCVIIL,
Abbot Samson upon an impulse of devotion saw and touched
the body of St. Edmund on the night immediately following the
feast of St. Catherine, in presence of these witnesses : — "

220

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR,

The abbot de-
poses the for-
mer keepers
and draws up
new rules.

the coffin or tray from damp. Then they lifted
Midnight. *ne panels of the shrine into their place and fastened

them together before the convent assembled for matins.1
The grief of the On perceiving what had taken place those who had been

monks who were

not present. absent were filled with grief, each saying to himself,
" Alas ! I was deceived ! " Matins over, the abbot
called the brethren around him at the foot of the
high altar and briefly explained what he had done,
alleging that he ought not to and could not invite
them all to be present on such an occasion.

Four days later the abbot deposed the keepers of
the shrine and the keeper of St. Botulph's, at the
same time appointing others and issuing new
regulations for the more careful and becoming
guardianship of the holy places. The high altar, which
had hitherto been used as a receptacle for the
irreverent storage of miscellaneous articles, the
abbot ordered to be made solid with stone and
cement, as well as the space between the shrine

1 The new shrine which Abbot Samson constructed lasted
till the sixteenth century, when the desecrators under Henry VIII.
described it as " most comberous to efface. " The print no. 463 in
Knight's " Old England, "vol. i., gives some idea of it, and the limn-
ing in Lydgate's MS. Harl. 2267 depicts it "as of gold standing on
a pedestal of gothic stonework," and sculptured with miniature
pillars and arches and pinnacles and crochets. Since the style of
both shrine and pedestal was not generally known at the end of
the 12th century, Abbot Samson's workmen must have been
among the most skilful of their time and the pioneers of the
decorated gothic so common fifty years later. After ages, however,
may have added the elaborate sculpture and other embellishments.
Jocelin confirms this supposition when he tells us, inspeakingof the
punishment of Geoffrey Rufus, that Abbot Samson laid hold of 200
marks and set them aside for the front of St. Edmund's shrine. This
evidently implies further improvements. In fact, Abbot Samson's
structure lent itself to any amount of adornment. The
gold-plated panels were so thick and massive that they required
several strong men to lift them into place, and the base was
formed of large solid blocks of marble. Thus substantial foun-
dations existed for goldsmith and sculptor to work upon.

SAINT JCDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 221

and the altar, so that henceforth he averted any
danger from fire through the negligence of the keepers,
according to that wise saw :

" Happy is the man whom the peril of others makes wary." x

§ 15. THE SEVENTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY
TO FRANCE BY Louis THE DAUPHIN, SEPT. H,A.D. 1217.

[Authorities— Abbot Samson's translation of St. Edmund's glorious and incorrupt
body was the sixth, and his[ verification of it the seventh. The longest interval
between any of these translations or verifications was 103 years. The monas-
tic records minutely describe them up to 1198, but after that period they are
ominously silent. To pursue the history of the saint it is necessary to turn
to French authorities, and principally to Pierre de Caseneuve and the traditions
of the church Saint-Sernin at Toulouse. The " Propre de la Basilique Saint-
Sernin, publie en 1(572 avec trois approbations," distinctly states that the
body of St. Edmund " translatum fuitin Gallias a regeLudovico Octavo," and
the approved nocturn lessons now in use at Toulouse assert the same fact. A
pamphlet on " The Relics of St. Edmund " by Lord Francis Hervey, printed at
the " Standard " office, Bury-St.-Edmund's, 18S6, discusses the whole question
whether Louis the Dauphin, afterwards Louis VIII., stole the body of St.
Edmund and carried it to France. The " monks " of St. Sernin's, whom the
learned lord mentions, were really Augustinian canons, and the " certain
devout exercises in Latin," the nocttmi lessons of the saint's office. Apart
from these inaccuracies the pamphlet is interesting as a summary of the
French tradition. The history of King John's last days fully bears out the
statements of Caseneuve anil the tradition of Toulouse. See Holinshed, edit,
of 1577, vol. ii. p. 597 ; Matthew of Paris, Rolls Series, ii. 655 ; Roger of Wen-
dover, Bonn's ed. vol. ii. p. 385 ; Yates' " Hist, of Bury-St.-Edmund's,"
p. 147, etc.]

In the stirring times of the great struggle for 8t. Edmund's
Magna Charta St. Edmund's Bury played a con- straggle for6

. Magna Charta.

spicuous part. The tradition ol the abbey prompted
the monks to side with the king. The ever present
body of their royal patron without doubt fostered a
feeling of loyalty. In the late reign Abbot Samson
had put on his helmet and led his men in person to
the siege of Windsor, in order to oppose John's plot
to supplant his brother Richard the Lion-Heart.
He even excommunicated all in his jurisdiction who
favoured the would-be usurper and proclaimed him-
self ready to go in disguise or in any other way

. 1 Erasmus, referring to Samson, quotes this old monastic saw,
"Felix quern faciunt aliena pericula cautum." (" Adag.," 616.)

222 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

to search for his rightful sovereign. Abbot and
monks just as readily espoused John Lackland's
cause when that prince lawfully ascended the throne.
In return John confirmed their liberties in the first
year of his reign, frequently paid them friendly visits, l
and, when the monks granted him for life the valuable
jewels which his mother Queen Eleanor had be-
queathed to the abbey, exempted them from taxation,
terons ^l1^ the mon^s> ^°J^Y did not prevent the barons
from assembling in the abbey church in 1205 at the
commencement of their constitutional struggle with
John. One king in his day had ruled wisely and
died manfully in defence of the liberty and religion
of his people. Could they have a more fitting patron ?
Under his protection the primate Hubert and the
Earl Marshal could unite the nation against a
tyrannical king and show the new spirit of national
freedom which the hitherto humbled Church and
baronage had assumed.
John's unconsti- The death of Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury,

tutional action.

the election of two rival successors, the putting
aside of both by Pope Innocent III. and the appoint-
ment of Stephen Cardinal Langton followed in quick
succession. John defiantly refused to receive the
new primate and thus brought the struggle to a
head. Innocent was not a pontiff to be thwarted in
his government of the Church by a king notorious
for faithlessness, tyranny, shamelessness and utter
selfishness. He laid the country under an interdict.
The churches were closed, the bells silenced; the
solemn round of services ceased ; chant and organ
were hushed throughout the length and breadth of
the land. The sacraments were administered privately ;

1 Jocelin says : " King John, immediately after his coronation,
setting aside all other affairs, came down to St. Edmund, drawn
thither by his vow and by devotion." (A.D. 1199.)

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 223

the dead received burial without mass or dirge.
Like other churches, St. Edmund's was closed,
the lights around the shrine were extinguished, and
the frequent pilgrimages discontinued. During the
four years of interdict the disaffection of the king's
subjects grew. The outraged leaders banded together
in secret conspiracy and at length proclaimed a
crusade under the generalship of Philip of France.
John, in order to gain breathing time, submitted to
the papal legate. He hoped with the alliance of the
Emperor and the Flemings to crush France and
have clergy and baronage at his mercy. But France
was victorious in the battle of Bouvines, and John
returned to England to find the barons strongly
united in defence of law and liberty.

A second time St. Edmund figures in the scene. The second

meeting of the

" The time is favourable," they said, " the feast of ^rons »* st-

* Edmund a

St. Edmund approaches. Amidst the crowds that shnne-
resort to his shrine we may assemble without sus-
picion." The undertaking was hazardous. Some
would perhaps waver, unless their resolution were
clenched by an oath and by the example of Martyr
Edmund. On the saint's feast, therefore, Nov. 20, NOV. 20,
1214, the primate met the barons at the shrine, and
in the soft quiet glimmer of the relighted tapers
they, one by one, with slow and measured step,
approached the high altar, and, laying their hand
upon it, vowed to heaven never to sheath the sword
till the king granted the charter which they saw
held unfolded before them. l

Seven months later John signed the Magna Charta
on an island in the Thames, in the face of a nation
under arms encamped in the neighbouring meadow
of Kunnymede.

1 Abbot Samson had passed to his reward two years previous, and
Hugh of Northwold ruled the abbey.

224 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The war around That day, however, did not bring the long-wished-

St. Edmund. ft „,, , , -1,1-^1

for peace. The war soon broke out again, and the East
of England became the field, and St. Edmund's Bury
the centre of conflict between John and the barons,
and afterwards between the English and French. In
the consequent turmoil and confusion St. Edmund's
body disappeared. At the beginning of hostilities
the barons fortified the saint's town and abbey, an
action which John deeply resented in a letter to
the monks dated St. Alban's, the 18th day of
December, 1215. Yet, when he let loose his foreign
hordes under the Earl of Salisbury to burn and
destroy Norfolk and Suffolk, he reverently spared
both town and abbey.

The French The barons, driven to despair by the king's dogged

resistance, a second time sought the aid of France.
Philip Augustus, glad of an opportunity of punish-
ing John for his repeated treachery and crimes,
quickly despatched Louis the Dauphin with a con-
siderable army to their help. While in England this
Louis, the father of St. Louis, and afterwards King
Louis VIII., surnamed Le Gros, robbed the nation
of Edmund's body. Before the war brought him to
East Anglia, Louis received the homage of the
barons in St. Paul's, and with it the support ot the
country. But his soldiers proved a greater scourge
than John's mercenaries ; and a reported design on
the part of the French to surplant the English
nobles took the soul out of Louis' cause. At the
same time occurred John's disaster in crossing the
Wash, his sudden death and the coronation at
•Gloucester of his son Henry III., then only ten
years old. The whole sympathy of the nation went
•out towards the innocent boy-king, and even Louis
was induced to make a short truce. On his return from
France at Easter time, 1217, hostilities recommenced

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 225

with the march of the confederates from London
to the relief of Montsorel.

In this expedition the French freely indulged in The French

soldiers rob

their well-known propensity for stealing the relics the churches

of their relics.

of saints from churches.1 Eoger of Wendover2 thus
describes their conduct : " On Monday the 30th of
April, the wicked French robbers, sparing neither
churches nor cemeteries, came to St. Alban's. They
spared the abbey except from supplying food and
drink, because the abbot, on a former occasion, paid
Louis eighty marks to save it. At the town of Eed- They purloin the

* body of St. Am-

bourn they pillaged the church of the body of St. pJ»"»ius.
Amphibalus. They also dared to take the relics of
the saints from above the high altar. One among
them seized on a silver and gold ornamented cross,
which contained a piece of our Lord's cross, and he
hid it in his wicked bosom. Louis with his army
arrived at Dunstable,8 and there passed the night,
and next day went on to Montsorel, where he raised
the siege." From Montsorel an army of 600 knights
and 20,000 Frenchmen under the Count of Perche
made for Lincoln. According to their custom they
pillaged all the churches and cemeteries on the march.
Louis himself did not go to Lincoln, but "with a
powerful host," says Matthew of Paris, 4 "he rode

1 The relics of saints have always been regarded as the common
property of the faithful. Hence they do not fall under the vow
of poverty in religious orders, and, apart from their reliquaries,
it has not been considered a sin to purloin them. On this principle
St. Benedict's body was taken, it is said, from Monte Cassino in
troublous days, and carried to Fleury on the Loire. The crusaders,
no doubt with the laudable intention of rescuing what was holy from
infidel hands, robbed saints' shrines without remorse and enriched
the West with the bodies of the most illustrious saints of the East.
The French in the middle ages were notorious relic-stealers.

2 Bonn's edition, vol. ii. p. 385.
8 In Bedfordshire.

4 Rolls Series, ii. 655.

226 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

mak^s for last towards the East coast, and miserably despoiled the
EdSJid? 8t towns and villages of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk."
The two former ravages by the Earl of Salisbury
and by King John, just before his death, left the
French prince very little spoil. The patrimony of
St. Edmund, however, remained untouched, and both
curiosity and devotion attracted him to the spot most
memorable throughout the struggle. It is said that,
warned by the example of the abbot of St. Alban's,
Hugh of Northwold l saved his monastery and the
shrine of the martyr by a bribe, but the Dauphin,
fearful of the fate of the sacrilegious and filled
with the traditional dread of St. Edmund's anger,
had no intention of violating either. No scruple,
however, withheld him from taking away the sacred
body of the martyr himself. On the contrary,
every motive urged him to it. The monks had
returned among the first to their allegiance to John.
They had always secretly favoured his cause. They
now showed the deepest pity for his young son and
successor. Why should he not punish them by
exacting the relics of their patron as his price for
sparing the abbey ? The nation, too, after inviting
him to the kingdom and throne, had withdrawn its
adherence. He had no hesitation in avenging him-
self by taking away to France the most precious
national treasure, the traditional protector of the
people's rights.
He abstracts the The monks, eighty only in number, were helpless

martyr's body

from the shrine, to resist save by protest. Probably none, or a few
only, knew of the intended spoliation. The soldiery
held the town at their mercy, so that the burgesses
could make no defence even if they became aware

1 Hugh became bishop of Ely. At the foot of his tomb in Ely
cathedral is carved the history of St. Edmund, a sad and loving
testimony to the loss which the abbey sustained under his reign

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 227

of the robbery. Louis found it a comparatively easy
task to raise the " crest," or slanting roof-like cover-
ing, to take out a panel of the shrine and thus
abstract the coffin, which as so much plunder his
men carried out of the church without creating
surprise. " Crest " and panel were carefully replaced,
and the shrine left apparently as before. Not an
offering to the saint was touched.

Meanwhile William the earl marshal had defeated And carries it to

France.

the united army of Frenchmen and confederate barons
and driven them from Lincoln. The Count of Perche
fell in battle, and his followers fled. The English
only pretended to pursue l and allowed them to
make their way to London with their plunder, which
included the body of St. Gilbert. Louis marched
from St. Edmund's Bury to cover their retreat, and
the joint armies gathered within the walls of London
which received a second time the body of St.
Edmund. Almost at once the treaty of Lambeth was
negociated, and the grand marshal conducted the
strangers out of the country. With them they
carried into France much spoil and the relics of
many saints, but of all their treasures they held
none more precious than the body of St. Edmund
the king and martyr. Little did they dream, how-
ever, that they were fulfilling the prophecy of the
widow of Rome by spreading devotion to his name
far and wide.

1 Roger of Wendover, Bohn's edit.

228 SAIXT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYIJ.

§ 16. THE EIGHTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY
TO THE BASILICA OF SAINT-SERNIN, TOULOUSE, A.D. 1219.

[Authorities — The learned Chanoine le Douais, Professeur u 1'ecole supi-rieure de
Theologie de Toulouse, edited in 1880 the " Iiiventaire de Saint Sernin de
Toulouse, 1489," (Paris : Alphon.se Picard, Rue Bonaparte), referred to by
Caseneuve. This "Iiiventaire" contains the following passage: "Item in
tribus vasis lapideis inannoris, unuin supra aliud, sunt corpora quatuor
coronatoruni et Sancti Aymundi regis Anglhe quondam. Quorum in vase
inferiore sunt corpora Clauclii et Nieostrati, in secundo vase sunt corpora
Simphoriani et Castoris, et in superiore vase corpus dicti beati Aymundi."
" Likewise in three marble sepulchres one above the other, lie the bodies of
the four coronati and of St. Edmund formerly king of England. The lowest
contains the bodies of Claudius and Nicostratus ; the second the bodies of
Simphorian and Castor, the top one the body of the said blessed Edmund."
A second "Iiiventaire," brought to light by the same learned canon and
drawn up as early as 1240, names only the moveables and immoveables in the
basilica, and therefore omits all mention of the body of St. Edmund or of any
other saint. De la Faille's " Annales de Toulouse" contain no information
on the subject. Rapin (Hist., edit. 1724, vol. i. p. 299) merely notices the
finding of the body at Toulouse and no more. The cathedral of Seville
possesses inexhaustible 5ISS. from which might probably be collected the full
history of St. Edmund's translation to Toulouse, but they are unarranged,
and the necessary search would take a life-time. The prefecture of Toulouse
possesses many ancient maps, bulls and parchments taken from Saint-
Sernin's, but Sir Antoine du Bourg, the highest authority on the history of
the great basilica, in a letter on St. Edmund's relics to the author, says
that in his researches lie has found no stronger evidence past or present than
the records now in the archives of Saint-Serum itself, copies of which have
been obtained for the compilation of the following sections.]

st Edmund's With the scenes of the so-called reformation before

body saved from . c .

desecration. our eyes, the presence or bt. Edmund s body in
France l is a subject of congratulation. Better far

1 The French Tradition. — Caseneuve in his "Vie de St. Edmond,"
speaks of the translation of the body of St. Edmund to France
and its possession by the Church of Toulouse as follows :

" The church of Saint- Sernin for many centuries has possessed
the precious relics of the glorious martyr St. Edmund, precious
even among those of so many apostles, martyrs, confessors, and
virgins which have acquired for it the glory of being one of the
most holy places on the earth. We understand that these relics of
St. Edmund the king were presented to this venerable church by
Louis VIII., the father of St. Louis.

" Divine Providence, foreseeing that heresy would within a few
centuries separate England from the unity of the Church, as
nature has separated it from the rest of the world, deigned to save
the bones of this illustrious martyr from the profanation to which
those of so many other saints were exposed.

**:t*t^tf*f?«

• j * -• •.-rf-^fc,*..- « .4 «

•ril i \ ,• \ , l!v TT\ T 7-TT ., i!

» » •

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^iFfeU

Basilica of Saint Sernin

AT TOI'LOUSE.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 229

that his bones should be held in honour and respect
in a foreign land, than be in his own, hidden away
unknown and unworshipped, like St. Cuthbert's in

"Louis VIII., having been elected king of England on the
deposition of King John, nicknamed Lackland, was for some time
engaged in war in that kingdom, and Matthew Paris states
that his army pillaged all the churches of the county of Suffolk.
Among them, as I have before remarked, was the abbey church
in which rested the body of St. Edmund. In those days Christian
soldiers gloried in committing the pious theft of taking away the
relics of the saints and transporting them to their own country,
and it was in consequence of this custom that we have acquired
part of the relics formerly belonging to the churches of the Levant.
It is probable that the French obtained the body of St. Edmund in
this way, and Louis VIII., on coming to besiege the town of
Toulouse a short time after his return from England (as everybody
knows), presented the relics of St. Edmund to the church Saint-
Sernin, where he lodged during the siege, it being at that time
outside the walls. . . .

" As a matter of fact the body of the martyr St. Edmund, king
of England, is mentioned in the inventories of the relics of Saint-
Sernin about 200 years ago, and, from the time when the army of
Louis VIII. plundered the church of St. Edmund, the English
chroniclers, who never lost an opportunity of signalising the
miracles wrought by that saint in his own church, make no
further mention of them, and by their silence, as I am convinced,
tacitly allow that his body had been taken away and translated
elsewhere." This statement is confirmed by the " Proces Verbal,"
1644 (Cahier G, Folio 70) of the Archives of Saint-Sernin ; by the
" Propre de la Basilique Saint-Sernin," published in 1672 with
three approbations; and by the "Proper" now used at Saint-
Sernin for the feast of St. Edmund with the approval of the Holy
See. Mr. Yates, an author thoroughly acquainted with monastic
records, in his " History of Bury " admits the tradition, though he
states it inaccurately. The " Monasticon " follows Caseneuve and
Yates. Rapin in his History of England (edit. 1724, vol. i. p. 290),
while unable to account for the presence of the body at
Toulouse, acknowledges it in the following words : " Je ne sai par
quelle avaniuie ce corps a e"te transport^ a Toulouse, oil on pretend
i'avoir decouvert en 1667." — "I know not by what accident this
body (of St. Edmund) was translated to Toulouse, where it is
alleged to have been discovered in 1667." (Correctly 1644).

The following works contain no reference to the body of St.

230 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

Durham, or cast to the winds like St. Thomas of
Canterbury's, or left silent and cold, with no lighted
taper or kneeling pilgrim to do them reverence, like

Edmund: " Histoire Generate de Languedoc," &c., par Dom
Claude de Vic et Dom Vaissete, O.S.B. ; "Hist. Generale de
1'Eglise de Toulouse," &c., par M. 1'Abbe Salvan ; " Histoire des
Institutions, &c., de Toulouse," par M. le Chevalier Du Mege ;
" Hist, des Evgques et Archevdques de Toulouse," par M. 1'Abbe
Cayre ; " Hist, de la ville de Toulouse," &c., par M, J. Raynal,
1759 ; " Hist, des Comtesde Tolose," parM. Guillaume Catel, 1623 ;
" Histoire Tolosaine," par Antoine Noguier Tolosain, 1559, which
only goes to 1218. M. Raymond Dayde (Tolose, 1661), in his
"Histoire de St.-Sernin, ou 1'incomparable tresor de son Eglise
Abbatiale de Tolose," 1661, gives on p. 83, " Le corps et Teste de S.
Edmond Roy d'Angleterre, Martyr." " Les Gestes des Tolosains
et d'autres nations," &c., composees, &c., par Nicolas Bertrand
(Tolose. 1555), contains in the list of the bodies of saints : "Item.le
corps de Sainct Aymod cofesseur du Roy d' Angleterre, item
le corps de Sainct Gilbert, Abbe."

The evidence in support of the Toulouse tradition is to most minds
conclusive. First, the whole history of the period between 1205
and 1219 accords with it. The prominence of St. Edmund's Bury
in the dispute ; the friendly feeling which always existed between
John and the monks ; their known sympathy for his son, marked
the abbey as a fit object of spoil. Matthew Paris' testimony as
to the pillage of the churches of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Roger of
Wendover's as to the practice of the French soldiery of stealing
the bodies and relics of saints, a practice extensively carried on
in the East, amount to all but a definite statement that they
purloined St. Edmund's body. The date of Louis' quitting
England and his sojourn in the abbey Saint-Sernin, and the fame
of that basilica as a sanctuary for relics perfectly fit in with the
received tradition. Secondly, the ancient inventories mentioned
by Caseneuve, and especially the one of 1489 which is still extant,
are proof positive of the authenticity of the Toulouse relics.
Probably the latter inventory was a copy of an earlier one. In
any case the body of St. Edmund must have been in the crypt
before the inventory was made. Thirdly, the chain of evidence
from 1489 is unbroken : the inscription on the stone sepulchre ; the
cessation of the plague in 1631 ; the translation of the relics in
1644 ; the authentication in 1807 ; the opening of the shrine by
Cardinal Desprez in 1867, bring us to our own times. Fourthly, the
silence meanwhile of the chronicles and registers of St. Edmund's

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 231

St. Edward's in the now uncatholic and desolate
sanctuary of Westminster.

Little more than a year had elapsed after the

abbey strongly argues that the body was not there. From the
saint's martyrdom to 1198 no period of one hundred years elapsed
without some verification or translation of the incorrupt body being
chronicled, but, although according to the " Monasticon " the exist-
ing chartularies of St. Edmund's Abbey are probably more numerous
than those of any other in England, all researches up to the
present have failed to discover any record of the martyr's body
having been seen or moved from Abbot Samson's time to the
dissolution of the monastery in 1539, a period of 341 years. At
the dissolution Cromwell's commissioners found the body absent,
as we may judge by their silence concerning it in the following
extracts from their letters, the originals of which are preserved
in the Cottonian Library (see Dugdale's "Mon.," Nums. xliv. xlv.
under St. Edmundsbury). The first is signed
John Williams.
Richard Pollard.
Phylyp Parys.
John Smyth,
and reads :

"Pleaseth it your Lordship to be advertised that we have been
at Saynt Edmondsbury, where we found a riche shryne which
was very comberous to deface. We have taken in the seyd
monastery in golde and silver 5000 markes and above, besyds as
well a riche crosse with emeralds, as also dyvers and sundry stones
of grete value," &c., &c.

The second is from a letter by John ap Rice: "Amongst the
relics we founde moche vanitie and supersticion, as the coles that
S. Lawrence was tested withal, the parings of St. Edmund's
naylls," &c. Weever likewise in his enumeration of the relics of the
abbey church observes absolute silence with regard to St. Edmund's
body. This two-fold negative evidence proves that it was not at St
Edmund's Bury at the time of the dissolution.

Fifthly, a story in the "Registrum Rubrum " and an extract
from an old MS. positively imply the absence of the body.
The story of the monk's dream is given in the "Registrum
Rubrum" as occurring in Abbot Bernham's time (1335-
1361). A certain monk dreamt that he saw St. Edmund
leave his shrine and then return to it. The story itself
is of trifling consequence, but the conclusion drawn from it by
the monk is not so. He was terrified for fear of a speedy fulfilment

232 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

Louis the removal of St. Edmund's body from its English shrine

Dauphin at

Toulouse. when political events called Louis the Dauphin to the
south of France. For a long time the fanatical and

of an old prophecy that St. Edmund, after returning to
Beodricsworth a third time, would abandon it for Hoxne. " Post
quam tertio Beatus Edmundus cornu suurn flaverit, relinquens
Boedericsworth rediret ad Hoxne." — "After Blessed Edmund
shall thrice have blown his horn, leaving Bury he will return to
Hoxne. " The monks evidently knew the prophecy and its reference
to a third return of St. Edmund to Bury, where it is implied he
was not then. St. Edmund first entered Bury in 903, and a
second time, when Aihvin brought the holy body back from
London in 1013. Both entrances were celebrated by a concourse
of people and with great pomp, or in other words, " with sound of
trumpet." But a third blowing of trumpets was expected, that is,
a triumphant return from Toulouse, where his body in the time of
Abbot Bernham had rested for 114 years.

In the quotation in the " Monasticon " (vol. iii. p. 135) from a MS.
of a date say not earlier than Abbot Curteys' time (1429-1446), the
words " incorruptum ipsius corpus requiescit humatum " — "his
body rests entombed without decay," — can only indicate the stone
sepulchre at Toulouse, for the word " humatum" would never be
used of the shrine at St. Edmund's Bury. In fact, considering
that in 1400 Abbot Cratfield took £30 from the shrine to defray
the expenses of his papal election, a few, at least, knew, forty
years before, that St. Edmund's body was not there.

Sixthly and lastly, the verification of the relics at Toulouse con-
firms all previous evidence. When the body was authenticated, the
flesh had indeed decayed, but the bones of the entire skeleton re-
mained, except one, viz., the radius, a bone of the fore-arm. Now
this bone is the only relic of St. Edmund's body which the later
records of his abbey mention. It was preserved by the monks
and publicly venerated, notably at the visit of Henry VI. to the
abbey in 1433. Its recorded and unchallenged existence in
England establishes the authenticity of the rest of the body in
France.

It is objected that in the first place the diplomas of aggregation
and other documents refer to the presence of the body, although
there is no actual record of it. The Benedictines from the time of
the holy Patriarch St. Benedict have had the practice of giving the
habit, with letters of aggregation or fraternity, to distinguished
benefactors lay and cleric, and thus admitting them to the order
and to a community of prayers. For instance, John Duke of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 233

immoral sect of the Albigenses had agitated that
portion of the kingdom, and their violent atti-
tude now actually threatened its dismemberment.

Lancaster in 1392 and the Earl of March and Ulster in 1415 were
so received. The diplomas or forms in use at St. Edmund's Bury
for affiliating members to the order still exist. In one of the time
of Abbot Curteys the letter of fraternity accorded to William
Paston contains the following words: "For the devotion which
you have to God and to our monastery, in which the most glorious
king and martyr St. Edmund reposes in the body and without
decay, we receive you," etc. (Yates, p. 157). This evidence
would be very strong did it not rest merely on the wording of an
old formula which was probably retained unchanged after 1219 on
account of its antiquity.

In Pat. 41, Henry III. (A.I). 1257), a charter granting custody of
the barony of the abbot of St. Edmund, occur the words : "Cujus
corpus requiescit ibidem " — " ivhose body rests in the same place."
(" Monasticon," vol. iii. p. 160).

Again (ibid. p. 162) we read the directions regarding the tapers
to be burnt on St. Edmund's feast "circa corpus'' — "round his
body."1' No doubt phrases like these were used in isolated cases
from custom or by an individual ignorant of the actual fact.

In "Bury Wills and Inventories," Caxton Publ., p. 13, vol. 49,
occurs the bequest : " Item lego feretro Sti Edmundi monile
aureum cum figura cerui ipssima," by which Lady Sharedelowe
(A.D. 1457) bequeaths to the shrine of St. Edmund a golden
necklace with its valuable pendant of lapis-lazuli, but no deduction
can be drawn from this except that the testatrix knew not of the
absence of the body, or probably knowing it, willed to honour the
place in which it had lain.

Referring to Ailwin's return to St. Edmondsbury, Richard of
Cirencester writes (A.D. 1337): " Then with the greatest honour
he [St. Edmund] is laid in his old resting place, Bury-St. -Edmund's,
where by the favour of God even to this day he ceases not to plead
the cause of those who devoutly seek him." Here mention is
distinctly made of the " power of St. Edmund's intercession at St.
Edmund's Bury " even " to this day ; " but the fact of the body
being there is markedly omitted, so that the passage rather favours
the French tradition than militates against it.

Secondly, pilgrimages and evon royal visits continued to be
made to the shrine during the whole period of the supposed
absence of St. Edmund's body. Thus King Henry III., Edward L
and Queen Eleanor, Edward II., Edward III., Richard II. and

234 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Prince Louis hastened southwards to quell the rebel-
lion and particularly to dislodge the enemy from
Toulouse. He carried with him the relics of many

Henry VI. paid their devotions at the shrine. Lydgate's magnifi-
cent manuscript ^depicts the last-named king kneeling before the
shrine. Was not the body there ? The pilgrimages continued
until the dissolution, and at the close of the last century Cook
Row (now Abbey-gate-street), where the pilgrims used to take
their meals, still retained signs of its original character. Did the
nation worship at an empty shrine ?

It is answered that the absence of the body would not affect the
devotion of the people to St. Edmund. That devotion had become
ingrafted in the habits of the nation. The pilgrimage was so
ancient and traditional, the shrine itself so renowned, the venerable
abbey-church so full of memorials of the saint and of the shrines of
other servants of God, that the custom of journeying to St.
Edmund's Bury continued unchanged. In a similar manner
Hoxne was a favourite pilgrimage for centuries after St. Edmund's
body was removed from it, just as Becket's Crown, Durham
Cathedral, Lindisfarne or lona now-a-days, although the bones of
their saints are gone. A higher example is the sepulchre of our
Lord, or the spot where the cross was found, for Catholic devotion
honours not only the holy but the spots hallowed by the holy.

Thirdly, the decay of the body found at Toulouse seems to tell
against the French tradition. St. Edmund's was one of the five
well-known incorrupt bodies of Catholic England. " There are
altogether five which I have known of," writes Malmesbury,
"though the residents in many places boast of more; Saints
Etheldreda and Werburga, virgins ; King Edmund ; Archbishop
Elphege ; Cuthbert the ancient father ; these with skin and flesh
unwasted and their joints flexile appear to have a certain vital
warmth about them and to be merely sleeping. " In our own day
St. Catherine at Bologna, St. John of Prague in Bohemia, St.
Zita at Lucca, St. Teresa at Avignon, St. Francis Xavier at
Goa, and nearer home the hand of Father Arrowsmith, are
instances of incorruption similar to St. Edmund's. In the
year 1193, three hundred and twenty-eight years after the
royal martyr's death, Abbot Samson found the body perfect and
undecayed. That is an incontestable fact. Abbot Samson's
" robust and upright character " would not have stooped to decep-
tion. Honest Jocelin wrote of what he saw without suspicion of
imposture. Mr. Rokewood, the editor of the Latin text of
Jocelin's Chronicle, and blunt Carlyle, who read it and wrote

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 235

saints, and notably the bodies of St. Edmund and St.
Gilbert, that through their intercession the God of
armies might bless his enterprise. On arriving

of it with undisguised admiration, believed the historical evidence
before them. Only the translator of Jocelin's Chronicle, a certain
Mr. Tomkins, with au impudent curtness and without producing
any evidence to support his case, denies probability, possibility and
continuous tradition, gives the lie direct to abbot, chronicler, editor
and commentator, and peremptorily asserts : " There is not the
slightest doubt but that this body was a supposititious corpse and
perhaps not the first " (p. 47, note).

The difficulty however still remains. When the archbishop of
Toulouse, Charles de Montchal, opened the stone sepulchre upon
which St. Edmund the martyr's name was inscribed, he found a
skeleton only. The possession of the radius or arm-bone at old
St. Edmund's Bury points to the decay taking place years before
the dissolution, but not even Caseneuve attempts to explain
it. The incorruption of the soulless body is, however, only
an extraordinary manifestation of the Divine Wisdom and
Omnipotence, and like other miracles its continuance or cessa-
tion surpasses human calculation. But who can say that the
decay of St. Edmund's body is not a lesser evil than its total
destruction, or that there is not a certain congruity in its being
deprived of its prerogative of incorruption at a time when it was
deprived of its honour by being taken to a strange country and laid
in a neglected tomb ? Again, if Mr. Raine's contention is true, and
the skeleton which he discovered in May, 1827, in Durham cathedral
was St. Cuthbert's and not that of Bishop Frithestan or some
other bishop, then we have another instance of an undoubtedly
incorrupt body decaying. Could the bodies of St. Etheldreda or
Archbishop Elphege be exhumed, perhaps further light might be
thrown upon this question. The hand of St. Etheldreda, which
is reverently preserved at St. Dominic's Convent, Stone, Staffs., is
still incorrupt, but the flesh is gradually perishing. Nature is
thus allowed by Divine Providence to reassert itself. St. Edmund's
body, preserved at Bury with care and reverence, likewise re-
mained incorrupt for the glory of the saint and the edification of
the faithful, and yet was afterwards allowed to crumble to dust
after exposure to a long march over rough roads, in a rumbling
thirteenth century military waggon, and after years of compara-
tive neglect, for its incorruption was no longer necessary for its
special glory and renown, since there were no more pilgrims as
of old, and no longer a nation's reverence and homage.

236 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

before the gates of Toulouse he took up his quarters
in the cloisters of the basilica of Saint Satuminus,
siifcaof Saint- or Semin, which at that time stood outside the walls,
and the body of St. Edmund was placed for the
time being within its sacred precincts.

The basilica which thus providentially received St.
Edmund's remains was renowned throughout Christen-
dom for its treasures and antiquity. From the earliest
times it has enjoyed the name and rights of a
basilica. Two early bishops of Toulouse, St. Sylvus
and St. Exuperus, erected it in the fourth century
to receive the body of the martyred prelate St.
Saturninus. It was rebuilt in the eleventh century
in the full majesty of the Eoman style, with a vast-
ness of conception and a simplicity of detail which
inspires a feeling rather of awe than of admiration.
Pope Urban II. consecrated it in 1096. Its abbots,
who presided over a chapter of Augustinian canons,
became by royal decree the hereditary protectors of
the university of Toulouse and ranked amongst the
highest prelates of the land. In the war with the
Albigenses they often stepped in as mediators
between the two parties. By their permission
" Count Piaymund VI. held the common assembly
of citizens of Toulouse within the impregnable
basilica, at the foot of whose walls the redoubt-
able Simon de Montfort was slain on June the
25th, 1218.

The basilica was still more famous for its numerous

Its treasury of

relics. relics of saints. Over its portals stands the inscrip-

tion : " Non est in toto sanctior orbe locus " — " There
is no spot more holy in the whole earth," — for it is
the third richest church in the world for relics.
Two holy bishops raised it over the grave of their
predecessor. Afterwards Charlemagne, desiring to
repair the injury which he had inflicted by the

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 237

temporary removal of the body of St. Saturninus,
promised to give it a court as numerous and as illus-
trious as that of St. Denis at Paris. He kept his
promise, and the basilica received the bodies of six
apostles which Pope Leo III. had presented to him.
On an old tapestry which represents this benefaction
a distich runs as follows :

"Sex vexit hoec rediens Hispanis magnus ab oris
Carlus apostolic! corpora sancta gregis. " 1

In the course of ages the crusaders from the town
further enriched the great church with the bodies
and relics of saints brought from the East, and popes
and kings vied with each other in adding to its
treasury, till the bones of sixty saints seemed to
satisfy even the proverbial love of the Toulousians
for pious relics.

Prince Louis, emulous of Charlemagne, and grateful It receives
to the canons for their hospitality and prayers, now st? Edmund.
offered to the basilica the bodies of St. Edmund and
St. Gilbert. He knew no church more worthy by
its sanctity and age to receive the body of the royal
martyr or to replace the stately abbey church from
which he had taken it. Accordingly the Augustinians
laid St. Edmund to rest in the crypt beneath the great
basilica where Pope St. Urban had preached the first
crusade and St. Bernard the second, under the vaulted
roof which was ringing with the burning words of St.
Dominic, in the company of the apostles, near St.
Agatha and St. Lucy, to be numbered in future
with the martyrs St. Stephen and St. George, St.
Blasius and St. Christopher, in the calendar of Saint-
Sernin.

1 "Charles the Great, returning from the borders of Spain,
brought hither these sacred relics, six bodies of the Apostolic
band."

238 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYR.

The crypt of The crypt which received the English martyr was

Saint-Sernin. J * J .

rich in the bodies of saints, but they were hidden
away in unrecognised tombs. The invasions of the
Vandals, of the Alans, Sueves and Visigoths pre-
vented the exhuming of the bodies in the early
centuries, so that even the remains of St. Saturninus
and the precious relics brought thither by Charle-
magne lay buried for generations, marked indeed
with their names, but so hastily put away that only
the tradition of their presence remained. The Albi-

A.D. 1208. gensian troubles caused St. Edmund's body to be
treated in a similar manner. Forty years later, how-
ever, the crypt of the basilica became too small to
contain all the relics of saints which had accumu-
lated in the course of centuries, and the canons
commenced the present crypt. As the work pro-
ceeded, they searched for, exhumed and translated
the sacred bodies, in some instances enshrining them
in jewelled reliquaries of gold or silver,1 in others
merely verifying the bodies, and then placing them
in sepulchres of stone or marble. They seem to have

st. Edmund's taken this latter course with the body of our saint, for

' according to the inventory of 1489 the body of

"Saint Edmund once king of England" rested in a

1 Thus on the 6th of September, 1258, the body of St. Satur-
ninus was searched for and found in the vault in which St.
Exuperus had placed it. It was removed tomb and all to the
spot in the east apse where the marble shrine now canopies it.
About the same time the bodies of SS. Sylvus, Hilary and
Honoratus were merely exhumed. In 1386 the relics of St.
James the Greater were translated to a rich reliquary. Those of
St. Jude and St. Susanna of Babylon were exhumed on the 25th
of January, 1511 ; those of St. Papoul, St. Philip, St. James the
Less, and St. Gilbert of Sempringham on the 24th of March,
1507 ; those of St. Exuperus on the 13th of April, 1586, and those
of St. Barnabas, St. Edmund, and St. Raymond of Toulouse in
1607, 1644, and 1656. By the end of the 17th century all the
relics had been thus translated and enshrined.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 239

plain marble tomb, the uppermost of three, all similar
in character, the lowest of which contained the bones
of SS. Claudius and Nicostratus, and the second those
of SS. Simphorian and Castor.

§ 17. THE XINTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY.

[Authorities— The archives of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse contain— Cahier G, folio 70—
the " Proces Verbal (A.D. 1644) sur 1'elevation du corps et saints relifiues du
glorieux Saint Edmoncl martyr Roi d'Angleterre," etc., which incidentally
relers to a ninth translation or removal of St. Edmund's relics between 1489
and 1644. For the contemporary history of the great church see the " Mono-
graphic de la Basilique Saint-Sernin de Toulouse," par S. Manaut ; Toulouse :
Imprimerie Vialelle et Cie., 1879.]

The enlargement of the crypt of Saint-Sernin and st. Edmund's
the gradual exhuming and translating of the bodies aTs
of the saints made room for the more reverent keep-
ing of St. Edmund's remains. Accordingly they were
removed before the seventeenth century into a small
arched and vaulted recess, in the west corner of which
the sarcophagus was erected and covered with a large
stone like an altar-stone. On the front of this tomb
an inscription was cut in big thick letters which
ran thus •

ICI REPOSE LE VENERABLE CORPS DE SAINT-EDMOND
PtOY D'ANGLETERRE.1

1 " Here reposes the venerable body of Saint Edmund King of
England."

240 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

§ 18. THE TENTH TRANSLATION OF ST. EDMUND'S BODY
BY HIS GRACE CHARLES DE MONTCHAI., ARCHBISHOP OF
TOULOUSE, A.D. 1644.

[Auiliorities — A paper from the archives of Saint-Sernin on the "Translations de
cesReliques" in Nov., 1644, supplements the authorities referred to in the
last section and gives a full description of this gorgeous and solemn ceremony
connected with St. Edmund's memory. The late Father Lazenby, S.J., of
Bury-St. -Edmund's, kindly supplied copies of the " Proces Verbal " and of the
"Translation de ces Reliqnes" for, this work, which he obtained through the
kindness of the late Father Ramiere, S. J. Further details may be gathered from
a small volume entitled "L'elevation des reliques du glorieux martyr Saint
Edmond roy d'Angleterre, etc., etc., .... faite par messire Charles de
Montchal nrchevesque de Toulouse, . . . pour 1'accomplissement d'un
vceu de ladite ville. Ensemble 1'extrait des sermons du dit archevesque et de
Mgr. 1'evesque de S. Papoul." Toulouse, 1C45, 4to. The " Livre de prieres
a 1'usage de ceux qui out la devotion de visiter les sacrees reliques dans
1'insigne Basilique de Saint-Sernin, &c.," printed in 1762, gives an engraving, on
p. 7 of the preface, representing the altar on which St. Edmund's body rested
during the octave of the translation, and, on p. 82, an account of their transla-
tion itself. See also the small brochure, " Les Corps Saints de 1'insigne Basili-
que Saint-Saturnin de Toulouse ," Toulouse : Imprimerie Saint-Cyprien, 1881.]'

During the four years 162S,-29,-30,-31, the justice

The plague at J J

Toulouse in 1631. an(j mercy Of God afflicted the city of Toulouse with
a plague which raged so virulently that the streets
of the large and populous city soon became silent
and forsaken and the majority of the houses unin-
habited. All those human succours which proved
efficacious on former occasion failed on this, and
the people in despair looked about for some Moses
to stand between them and the anger of God. They
had ever regarded the relics of the saints treasured
up in their great basilica as pledges of God's favour.
Carried in procession through the streets, they had
more than once stayed the avenging Hand. The
Toulousians now determined to appeal to the Al-
mighty in the name of His servant Edmund to help
them, as He had helped the people of old for the
sake of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 241

For this end the capitouls or consuls l of Toulouse, ^ vow of w»

' Toulousians to

on the 12th of August, 1631, publicly vowed in the i
name of the people to bring forth St. Edmund's body
from the obscurity in which it had lain for years
and, at the expense of the town, to present for its
enshrinement a silver reliquary richly enchased, as a
memorial to posterity of the cessation of the plague,
for which they petitioned through the intercession
of the blessed king and martyr of England. The
plague suddenly ceased its ravages, the saint renewing
in a strange land the miracles discontinued in his
own. Thus it pleased God to glorify once more his
royal champion.

For thirteen years the desolation and poverty of
the town delayed the fulfilment of the citizens' vow.
In 1644, however, the lord abbot of Saint-Sernin,
Monseigneur Defiat, authorised his vicar-general, John
Jerome Duthil, to call the attention of the chapter
as well as of the principal citizens to the subject
of the vow. On the 22nd of April the canons of Apnl 22>
the basilica unanimously resolved on the translation.

They undertook to make the ceremony as solemn
and imposing as possible, and one of their number,
Pierre de Caseneuve, wrote a life of the saint in
preparation for it. On the 10th of July the canons J»iy 10.
invited the archbishop of Toulouse, Monseigneur
Charles de Montchal, to preside at the translation,
saving the rights of their abbot. The archbishop
consented, and a document with the saving clause
inserted was drawn up and signed. His Grace further
arranged to enter upon the examination of the martyr's
relics after vespers on the following Saturday, July
the 16th. The register in the archives of Saint-
Sernin describes the opening of the tomb as follows ;

1 A title held by the magistrates of Toulouse, and a remini-
scence of the connection of their city with ancient Rome.

242 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The opening of "When the said 16th day of the above-mentioned

St. Edmund's . . . ,

tomb, July 16. month of July arrived in the year one thousand six
hundred and forty-four, the above-mentioned chapter
deputed two canons, Monsieur de Mervilla and Mon-
sieur de Parade, to attend upon the archbishop in
his archiepiscopal palace and to conduct him to our
church. On his approach, Messieurs the Canons
d'Armaing and de Cambolas de Touzin and de Lassur
offered him holy water at the door of the basilica
and led him to the sacristy of the Holy Bodies.
There we found assembled M. Jean de Bertier, lord
of Montrabe, the king's councillor and first president
of the Toulouse parliament; M. Jacques de Maussac,
councillor and dean of the said parliament ; M. Jean
George de Caulis, king's councillor and chief judge
in the seneschal's court at Toulouse; MM. Antoine
de 1'Aquavigne, George Falaire, barristers ; Jean
Virazil, Valive Toule, Eollaund Eaure and d'Oubiea,
citizens of Toulouse, and capitouls for the current
year ; M. Bartholomew Sixte, priest and sacristan of
the Holy Bodies, together with the regent-treasurers
and officials entrusted with the care of the Holy
Bodies.

" Word was given to the sacristan to lead the way
to the place in which the body of blessed Edmund,
king of England, rested.

"Descending into the crypt of the said Holy
Bodies, we proceeded to conduct his Grace the arch-
bishop to a small arched and vaulted recess, in the
west corner of which stood a sarcophagus covered
with a large stone like an altar-stone. On the front
of this tomb an inscription in big thick letters ran
thus :

HERE REPOSES THE VENERABLE BODY OF SAINT
EDMUND KING OF ENGLAND.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 243

I " For the opening of the tomb, William Bagilet,

custodian of the Holy Bodies, now presented a hammer
decked with flowers, which we handed to the arch-
bishop, requesting him in the name of our lord abbot
De*fiat and of the venerable chapter of the basilica,
to deign to proceed with the authentication. Then
his Grace, taking the hammer, struck the stone
three different times ; whereupon, by our orders, the
masons set to work to open the tomb.

" Under an archway let into the wall on the other
side of the same recess, we now took the opportunity
of pointing out to the archbishop the two stone
sepulchres containing the bodies of SS. Claudius,
Nicostratus and others.

" By this time the masons had raised the stone The verification

of the martyr's

slab which covered St. Edmund's tomb. At once relics-
Messieurs the Canons Doberal, Mervilla and de Parade
placed themselves near the coffin, so as to prevent
any one touching the holy relics. The opened tomb
disclosed a quantity of bones and topmost a human
skull. We called to our aid Sieur Andre Lubio, chief
surgeon of Toulouse, and requested him to make a list
of the bones in order to insert it in this document."
Here follows the catalogue of bones, each techni-
cally named. None were missing,1 except the small
bone of the fore-arm which St. Edmund's own abbey
had preserved. Each bone was reverently taken
from the stone coffin, classified and then carefully
placed in a wooden chest, which was lined inside
and out with yellow satin. The chest was finally

1 The catalogue of bones contained in the "Proces Verbal,"
having been submitted to an M.D. and Fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons, Edin., s reported to contain all those bones
which constitute the skeleton except the radius, a bone of the
forearm. The skull, however, contained only seven teeth in the
lower jaw and three in the upper. For the question of the decay
of the sacred body see note, p. 234.

244 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

locked up in the safe of the relic of the Holy
Thorn, which an iron grating fastened with a padlock
made doubly secure. The archbishop put his seal on
the padlock ; the key was taken away, and so ended
the first part of the ceremony of the royal martyr's
tenth translation. l
The preparation The final solemnities were appointed to take place

for the great

ceremony. in connection with St. Edmund's feast in the Novem-
ber following. The register of Saint-Sernin relates
with almost wearisome minuteness the preparations

Oct. 17. for the occasion. On October the 17th, the greater

number of the shrines of the basilica were cleaned
and got in order. On the 25th, " according to ancient
custom," certain canons in the name of the lord abbot
and of the chapter invited the city-parliament to
attend, and the president answered that all the mem-
bers would be present in their scarlet robes to add
what solemnity they could to the occasion. About
the same time criers proclaimed the coming event
in the neighbouring villages.

in the interior of In the basilica itself the noise of hammer and saw
told of more material preparations. In the midst of
the nave a lofty flight of steps covered with carpet
mounted to a wooden platform, on which three altars
were erected to receive the shrines of St. Edmund
and of the other saints. Rich hangings covered the
long double line of columns on each side of the
basilica. Afar off at the end of the vista of columns,
and under the great chancel arch, in front of which
lay the choir, stood the high altar with a reredos of
inestimable value, consisting of the shrines and re-
liquaries of the church each with its halo of tapers,
and arranged in storeys which reached from floor to

1 The verification of the five bodies of martyrs which lay near
to St. Edmund's tomb was deferred to the following Monday,
July 18.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 245

roof. The workmen had removed the choir-screen, in
order that all might see the relics. The archbishop's
throne stood on one side, and on the other were
arranged seats for the assistant bishops. In the
aisles at the side of the choir the carpenters
built a temporary gallery for a full band. All
these preparations were complete by Saturday, Novem-
ber the 12th.

On that day the archbishop descended into the The commence-
ment of the cere-
Crypt in order to bring to the upper church the mony, November

bodies of the saints. He wore his pontifical robes ;
the archiepiscopal cross and the crozier were borne
before him, it being provised that this should be
done without prejudice to the immunities or privileges
of the basilica and its canons — a proviso which recalls
similar precautions in St. Edmund's abbey in England.
The canons of Saint-Sernin attended the archbishop.
In the dull eventide, about four o'clock, the proces-
sion wended its way through the passages of the
dimly lighted crypt. The first and second presidents
and the members of the Toulouse parliament ; the
municipal authorities in their red robes ; the seventy-
two custodians of the bodies of the saints and their
assistants, and a crowd of other distinguished citi-
zens followed in the procession. All carried lighted
tapers. The prelate incensed the relics, then paused
for a few moments in prayer. Next two canons took
up the chest containing the relics of SS. Claudius
and Nicostratus, and two others that containing the
bones of SS. Simplex, Symphorian and Castor, in
order to carry them to the church. Lastly, the vicar-
general and Canon de Foudeyre raised to their
shoulders the coffin enclosing the body of St. Edmund
and carried it in the procession under a canopy sup-
ported by the mayor and three senators. The bearers
deposited the three chests on the altars in the nave

246 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR,

of the basilica each near its silver shrine. The arch-
bishop again incensed the relics and prayed in
silence ; then he descended the platform to officiate
at solemn vespers. Outside in the streets and squares
the citizens lighted bonfires and illuminated the
windows of their houses with torches.
The tenth trans- Next day at eight o'clock in the morning the

lation of St.

Edmund's relics, archbishop returned to the basilica to sing the solemn

Sunday, Nov. 13,

1644> mass and preside at the translation of St. Edmund's

body and of the bodies of the other holy martyrs.
The church presented a scene of unusual magnifi-
cence. The background of glittering shrines and
lights closed the vista of the tapestried lines of pillars.

The brilliant Around the altar the archbishop on his throne

assembly.

and his eight mitred brethren, the assistant priests
and deacons and the other sacred ministers were
grouped, while the robed canons and the privileged
doctors of the university filled the rest of the
sanctuary. In the choir the members of the Toulouse
parliament had assembled in their red robes ; and
also the treasurers of France, the city magistrates,
proud of their imperial title, and the mayor and
aldermen. The various trades of the city filled the
nave between the choir and the platform of the relics.
The platform itself with its three altars rose gloriously
above the heads of the crowd in the centre of the
church and displayed the coffins and shrines of the
newly exhumed relics and the vicar-general and two
canons religiously guarding them, while, upon the steps,
the custodians, superintendents, treasurers, and officers
of the Holy Bodies stood with lighted white tapers in
their hands. An immense multitude of people crowded
the nave and double aisles. Never had the old city
seen so joyous and magnificent a pageant ; never had
there been a more glorious translation of St.
Edmund's relics, even in his old abbey-church.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 247

After the gospel the archbishop ascended a pulpit The archbishop
which stood opposite the platform of the relics, and pr
preached on the virtues of East Anglia's king and
martyr,1 as Bishop Wakelin had done on a similar
occasion six hundred years before. The mass over,
vested in cope, he ascends the platform of the relics
accompanied by the members of the chapter. He
incenses the relics and blesses the silver shrines.
The vicar-general opens the wooden chests, and, taking
out the bones one by one, presents them to the arch-
bishop, who, showing each in turn to the people,
places them with religious care in their silver shrines.
" Meanwhile," says the register, " the band of musi-
cians continued to stir up devotion in the hearts of
the audience, and salvoes of artillery proclaimed far
and wide the piety and religious joy of the inhabi-
tants." At the end of the ceremony the archbishop
retired, to return later for the solemn vespers.

For a whole week the relics of St. Edmund and The pilgrimages

to St. Edmund.

of the other holy martyrs remained exposed for
the veneration of the faithful. Every two hours the
vicar-general presented those of St. Edmund to the
people to kiss, and two canons presented those of the
other saints. Every day processions, each headed by
its priests, nocked in from the neighbouring parishes.
The pious associations of the city and of the towns
in the vicinity also came, each in its turn, so that
fifty pilgrimages were made to the basilica during
the week, and God blessed the faith of the people
by numerous miracles.
The solemnities on the festival itself surpassed if The feast of

St. Edmund,

possible those of the first day of the translation. On NOV. 20
Sunday, the 20th of November, the 744th anniver-
sary of St. Edmund's martyrdom, by proclamation

1 This sermon, as well as one preached a few days later by the
bishop of Papoul, was printed in 1645 in a 4 to volume.

248 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The gorgeous of parliament a procession passed through the streets

procession. , . ... ., , •.-.•.

of the city. Starting from the basilica, it wended its
way to the cathedral of St. Stephen, to conduct
thence the Blessed Sacrament. All the relics of the
basilica were carried in this procession, some by
religious in their various habits, others by craft-
guilds decorated with their distinctive badges.
Canopy after canopy, forty-two in number, prepared
with rival magnificence by the various trades, were
borne over the shrines. The heads of the five
martyrs SS. Symphorian, Castor, Claudius, Mcostra-
tus and Simplex, surrounded by surpliced priests
and master-tradesmen, were followed respectively
by the shrines which enclosed their sacred
bodies,
crowned by st. Last of all in the procession the principal group

Edmund's relics. . .

came, made up or the highest dignitaries or church
and city, who attended that day to do honour to St.
Edmund the king. First amongst them the manda-
tory of the holy relics walked, in his robes of purple
cloth and red taffety with head-piece of red velvet
and the emblem of the Holy Ghost suspended from
his neck. The custodians of the holy relics of the
basilica, carrying lighted tapers and engravings of
St. Edmund, next led the way before four priests,

The royal wh° carried upon their shoulders the head of the
royal martyr under a canopy trimmed with cloth of
silver and covered with embroidered gold and silver
crowns to represent royalty and martyrdom. The

ms shrine. venerable chapter of the basilica followed, carrying
in their midst, on a portable stand hung with crim-
son, the shrine in which rested the bones of the
martyr-king of England. 1 Four magistrates of the

1 It is worthy of remark that Pierre de Caseneuve, St. Edmund's
French biographer, was one of the four canons who carried the
royal martyr's shrine.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYJt. 249

city held over it a rich canopy, and the treasurers
past and present of the holy relics, holding lighted
tapers, formed a body-guard on each side. The vicar-
general with his master of ceremonies, the sacristan
of the crypt and the confessor of the pilgrims closed
the procession. Thus the citizens of Toulouse bore
St. Edmund through their streets to the cathedral
church.

They passed along the Eues du Tour, de Senechal, The route of the

procession.

Rivals and the Square de Capitole to the church
of St. Antony, where they paused awhile before pro-
ceeding by the Rue de la Pomme and Rue Boulbonne
to the cathedral, at the western door of which the
greater and more honourable procession of the Blessed
Sacrament awaited them.

The archbishop held aloft the sacred Host under The procession

of the Blessed

a canopy of cloth of silver ; the cathedral chapter sacrament.
stood around, as also the magistrates and officials of
the city according to their rank ; the parliament of
Toulouse headed by its two presidents ; and the king's
lieutenant, the viceroy of Languedoc. The procession
thus completed returned through the gaily decked streets,
in the midst of music and singing, to the church of St.
Antony and thence to the great basilica. The bishop The sermon by

r the bishop of

of Saint-Papoul preached, vespers was chanted, and, st.-Papoui.
when all was over inside the church, the lofty pyra-
mid which had been erected outside in the square
was set on fire. The canons of the basilica and
the magistrates of the city stood and watched
the flames rising to the sky and signalling to the
whole town the commencement of rejoicings and
illuminations.

As the feast was to be solemnized with an octave,
the archbishop, the chapter, the magistrates and the
parliament again assembled next morning for mass Nov> 21>
at the altar of the relics in the middle of the nave.

250 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

Afterwards they carried St. Edmund's shrine to the
chapel of the Holy Ghost, where for eight days
citizens and strangers alike came to see and pray
before it.
The French Thus exposed to public view, all could examine

shrine of the

royal martyr. fts rare W0rkmanship. It was a masterpiece of the
silver-smith's skill. At each corner stood figures of
the saint-bishops of Toulouse, and, under a portico
in the front centre, one of St. Edmund in massive
silver. Four Corinthian columns supported an
exquisitely wrought balcony, from which rose a
dome surmounted by a cross. All was made of
solid silver.

After the octave the custodians took the shrine
and its precious contents back to the crypt. As a
record to posterity the register from which this
account is taken was drawn up and signed by wit-
nesses, and then enclosed in a phial and placed
within the shrine. Thus concluded the tenth trans-
lation of St. Edmund.

§ 19. ST. EDMUND'S BODY AND ITS PRESENT RESTING-
PLACE. A.D. 1644 TO 1892.

[Authorities— " La verification des Reliques en 1807," the original of which is
preserved in the archiepiscopal archives at Toulouse, and also the "Mono-
graphic de la Basilique," etc., which has been already referred to under
Section 17.]

Before A.D. 1790. From 1644 to the French Revolution the history
of St. Edmund's body is uneventful. His shrine
was annually exposed, like those of other saints, on

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 251

the feast of Eelics in Whit-week, and at the cen-
tenary celebration of 1762, one of the most magni- A-D- 1762-
ficent on record, his relics were carried in the great
procession. Beyond this the annals of Saint-Sernin's
record nothing.

Before the end of the century the hurricane of the Rev0^tfo
French Revolution broke over the city, overturning
everything sacred and profane. In 1790 it suppressed
the abbey of Saint-Sernin.1 Nevertheless, the traditional
love and respect of the Toulousians for their saints
saved the relics of the basilica. Previous to the
storm the Abbe du Bourg removed some to a place
of safety, and on the institution of the civil clergy
Pere Hubert, formerly provincial of the Minims,
who was appointed to Saint-Sernin, though he could
not hinder the spoliation of the shrines and reliquaries, Feb. 27, IT
watched over their contents with jealous care, and
within eighteen months placed them all with reverence
and order in less costly reliquaries.

In June and August, 1807, in eleven long sittings
presided over by Monsieur de Barbazan, vicar-general
of the archbishop of Toulouse, and Monseigneur du
Bourg, then bishop of Limoges, an ecclesiastical com-
mission examined all the relics of the basilica.
Monseigneur du Bourg and the commissioners who
had assisted at the removal of the relics when the
shrines were confiscated in 1794, gave evidence as to
their identity, and eighteen witnesses signed the
document which enumerated and authenticated them.

Since that day the reliquaries and their priceless
contents have been kept under three locks, the keys guards theni-
of which are held by the archbishop, the parish-
priest of Saint-Sernin, and the town council, and so
strictly are the relics guarded that in 1822 the

1 It numbered 24 canons, 10 prebendaries and 10 choir priests.
A line of 34 abbots had ruled the abbey.

252

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

St. Edmund's
present resting-
place.

municipal council refused Cardinal de Clermont-
Tonnerre, archbishop of Toulouse, any portion of them
for himself or other churches. They were gifts, thejr
pleaded, of popes and kings ; the inhabitants of the
city set a high value upon them ; strangers came from
afar to visit them ; to scatter them broadcast would
inflict an irreparable loss on Toulouse. Only for a
special reason, and that to repair a past injury, did
they permit the present Cardinal Archbishop of
Toulouse to open St. Edmund's shrine in 1867, and
to abstract a bone in order to present relics of the
saint to his abbey-town and to the monastery which
still glories in his patronage.

The rest of St. Edmund's earthly remains still
repose in the crypt of Saint-Serum, which vies with
that of St. Peter's at Eome in sacred treasures. Its
subterranean chambers, excavated behind the high
altar, correspond with the apse above, in which the
shrine of St. Saturninus stands overshadowed by its
marble baldachin. After wandering round the vast
basilica, the pilgrim approaches, with a feeling of
awe, this place renowned throughout Christendom,
in which the bones of apostles and of the most
illustrious martyrs, confessors and virgins repose,
the pious objects of veneration for generations
past.

The inscription " Non est in toto sanction orbe
locus " distinguishes the handsome doorway known as
the " Pilgrims'," by the side of which is a second
doorway, inscribed with the words, " Hie sunt vigiles
qui custodiunt civitatem," — " Here are the watchers
who keep the city." This second doorway opens upon
The inscriptions the flight of steps descending to the crypts. On

on the walls. ,

entering, the stranger first pauses to read from the
two white marble tablets let into the walls on

The crypt of
Saint-Sernin.

Its entrance.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYH. 253

each side, these simple but soul-stirring words :

D.O.M. 1 Under the auspices and by the pious munificence
of the Emperor Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnaire, and
Charles the Bald, the illustrious basilica of St. Saturninus
received the precious remains of several Apostles and of a
great number of Martyrs, Virgins and Confessors of the faith,
The Dukes of Aquitaine and the Counts of Toulouse added
to their number. The magistrates of this city have assidu-
ously guarded them. Here Religion preserves for the per-
petual edification of the faithful a portion of the cross of our
Saviour; a thorn of His crown, a gift of Count Alphonsus,
the brother of St. Louis ; a fragment of the stone of the Holy
Sepulchre, the glorious spoil of the crusaders of Toulouse;
and a portion of one of the robes of the Mother of God.

Underthese vaults, O pious pilgrim, are venerated relics
of the Apostles St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James the Greater, St.
James the Less, St. Philip, St. Simon, St. Jude, St. Barnabas,
St. Bartholomew — and of St. Claudius, St. Crescentius, St.
Nicostratus, St. Simplex, St. Castor, St. Christopher, St. Julian,
St. Cyr, St. Ascisclus, St. Cyril, St. Blasius, St. George.

Here rest the first bishops of Toulouse, whose line begins
in the third century — St. Saturninus, St. Honorius, St. Hilary,
St. Sylvus, St. Exuperus. Not far from their venerated
remains repose those of St. Papoul, St. Honestus, St. William
Duke of Aquitaine, St. Edmund King of England, St. Giles,
St. Gilbert, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Vincent of Paul, St.
Raymund, Pope St. Pius V.. St. Susanna, St. Julitta, St.
Marguerita, St. Catharine, St. Lucy, St. Agatha.

The second inscription runs as follows : The secoml

tablet.

D.O.M. Pope Urban II., after having assembled at Cler-
mont, in the year of our Lord 1O96, the faithful destined to
deliver the Holy Sepulchre, deigned to consecrate with his
own hands this basilica, one of the most precious monuments
of Christian art. This Sovereign Pontiff was attended by
Raymund IV. Count of Toulouse and Saint-Gilles, the illus-
trious prince who first of all adorned his standards and his
arms with the holy cross of our Saviour. The supreme
Pontiffs Clement VII., Paul V., Urban V. and Pius IV. have
granted numerous privileges to this abbatial church.
Those who visit its seven principal altars may gain the same

1 Domino optinie Maximo.

254 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

indulgences as by praying before the seven altars of St.
Peter's at Rome. The kings of France Charles VI., Louis XI.,
Francis I., Charles IX., Louis XIII., and Louis XVI. have
visited these holy catacombs and offered up their prayers
before these shrines. To this spot the pious inhabitants of
this country, when public calamity befalls them, hasten to
beg the powerful intercession of the Saints, the protectors
of this ancient and religious city.

The descent into After passing the marble tablets the pilgrim

the first crypt. . .

descends a flight or live steps, which abut upon the
upper part of the crypt. Thence three steps, and
again eleven steps wind down to the part excavated
under the high altar and the adjacent aisles. Here,

The first crypt,

each in a niche or upon an altar, the numerous
reliquaries are kept, which in Whit-week every year
are carried in procession and exposed for the venera-
tion of the faithful. The head of St. Thomas Aquinas
in a magnificent silver reliquary, the relics of St.
Francis of Paula in a shrine of marvellous workman-
ship, the relics of St. Pius V., of St. Gregory the
i u which is the Great and of thirty other saints rest there, and

head of St. i i i p n -n i i •

Edmund. among them the head or St. .Edmund in a simple
reliquary of gilt wood.

The inner crypt, The lower and inner part of the crypt lies under
the apse of the basilica. The gilded statues of the
emperors Constantine and Charlemagne stand sentinel
at the entrance. In the eight chapels around and
in the six intermediate niches the bodies of saints
repose in shrines more or less precious. The bodies
of St. Eaymund, St. Honoratus, St. Exuperus, St.
Hilary, St. Gilbert, and St. Giles fill the niches. Of
the two chapels at the end one contains the Holy
Thorn in a silver reliquary in the form of a balda-
chin, the other a notable part of the body of St.
James the Greater. In four other chapels the bodies
of SS. Simon and Jude, St. Philip and St. James
the Less, St. Papoul and the collected relics of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 255

several less known saints are preserved. Lastly the
two chapels on the left of the entrance are occupied, st.
the first by the body of St. Barnabas, and the second
by a wooden shrine plated with copper gilt, which
encloses the body of St. Edmund, the martyr-
king of East Anglia.

§ 20. MINOR KBLICS OF ST. EDMUND IN ANCIENT AND
MODERN TIMES.

[Authorities— Herman, and Osbert de Clare and Samson, the joint authors of MS.
Cott. Titus A. viii., relate several incidents in connection with the relics of
the royal martyr. Weever in his " Funeral Monuments," pp. 463-4, gives a
list of relics of St. Edmund found at the abbey at the dissolution, and
Dugdale's " Monasticon," edit. 1846, mentions various relics; see vol. ii.
p. 235, vol. iii. p. 124 and vol. v. p. 148. The work " L'Eglise Metropolitaine
et primatiale Saint-Andre de Bordeaux," par M. Hierosme Lopes (Bordeaux,
1668) p. 37, vouches for the existence of the Bordeaux relic, but inquiries
made both at Bordeaux and Lucca have failed to trace the relics in either city.]

At the opening of St. Edmund's tomb in 1644 the

,. ,, , ,, ., ,, , SanctiEdmundi,

radius, a small bone of the fore-arm, was found

missing. The monks of St. Edinundsbury possessed

this relic, which they carried in procession on great

festivals, as we learn from the record of King

Henry VI.'s visit to the abbey in 1433. Weever IJS^ Bury.

enumerates it among the relics of the abbey as a

" sinew " of St. Edmund's arm. No record, however,

exists of the time or circumstances under which it

was separated from the body.

The Toulouse " Proces Verbal " also notices the
absence of all but seven teeth in the lower jaw and
three in the upper. The martyr may have lost some
of these during his passion from the brutality of
the Danes. Others may have been taken as relics
at any time. If so, what became of them ? No
register of St. Edmund's Bury or known inventory of

256 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

any other abbey or church mentions them. Dugdale l
enumerates among the treasures of St. Albari's a relic

At St. Alton's. «i)e Sancto Edmundo Eege et Marty re," which was
evidently distinct from the relic " de camisia " which
he also mentions, but he gives no particulars, and
therefore it is quite uncertain what it consisted of.

At Bordeaux. The cathedral of Bordeaux possessed a relic of St.
Edmund in its treasury in 1668 ; so also did the
city of Dijon. These two relics were probably given

A.tDroii away in 1644 at the time of the translation of the

martyr's body. The great Revolution destroyed all
authentications in both places, and, although Bordeaux
possesses a box full of the relics of saints, no tradition
exists to prove that any portion of St. Edmund's
bones is there.

At st. Edmund's In 1867 Cardinal Desprez, the present archbishop
of Toulouse, opened the shrine of St. Edmund and
abstracted some of the relics, of which he presented
a bone an inch long, and probably the largest out of
the shrine, to St. Edmund's, Douai, with which he
had been connected from a child. The monastery and
college of St. Edmund at Douai possesses a second por-
tion of the royal martyr's bones, which the same cardinal
archbishop gave to the late Father King of "Waltham-
stow, who bequeathed it and its reliquary to the
present owners. The cardinal presented a third
portion to an English bishop, 2 who wears it in his
pectoral cross, the most precious memorial of his patron
saint which he could possess. Lastly the noble and

At modem Bury. generous cardinal gave the only portion which re-
mained to St. Edmund's church, Bury-St.-Edmund's,
where it is kept in a silver and gold reliquary, on
a stand set with emeralds and chased with designs
emblematic of martyrdom. The inscription, " From

1 "Monasticon," vol. ii. p. 232.

2 The Right Rev. Edmund Knight, D.D., bishop of Shrewsbury.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 257

the bones of St. Edmund the Martyr, king of East
England," encircles it, and yearly on the feast of St.
Edmund this relic, in the midst of flowers and lighted
tapers, is exposed upon the saint's altar for the
veneration of the faithful.

The holy woman Oswene, the devout keeper of The martyr's
the martyr's body in the early church at Beodrics-
worth, preserved the fragments of St. Edmund's nails
in a little box upon the attar. In the days of Matthew
of Westminster the monks still treasured these curious
relics, and at the dissolution of the monastery Crom-
well's commissioners wrote of the " paryngs of St.
Edmund's naylls " as among the treasures of the
abbey. The monk Ailwin, when guardian of the holy
body, also kept with care the combings of the martyr's
hair, which the monks afterwards preserved with
other mementoes of their patron in the " Chapel of
the Relics," which was built east of the shrine
purposely to receive such sacred treasures.

The most precious, however, of all the mementoes st. Edmund's

garments.

of the royal martyr were the garments which he

wore at his passion. Abbot Leofstan had removed

them, torn and blood-stained, from the holy body

and laid them up in a crystal case for the veneration

of pilgrims. In speaking of relics of St. E.lmund

Herman states that he refers only to pieces of these

robes. St. Alban's possessed a portion of the martyr's At st. Alban's.

camisia, or under-tunic, which it esteemed among

its most valuable treasures. And Abbot Baldwin, in

his personal appeal to Alexander II. against Bishop

Herfast's attempt to fix his see at St. Edmund's Bury

and to degrade the abbey to a cathedral priory, took

pieces of them with him, in order to spread devotion

to the protector of his abbey. He bestowed a part

on the cathedral church of St. Martin at Lucca, l At Lucca

1 Consecrated A.D. 1070. Abbot Leofstan also had visited

258 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

where an altar under the invocation of the martyr
Edmund was erected at the entrance of the church
to receive it. l Not long after Baldwin's return home,
Prior Edfric and the priest Siward went on a
pilgrimage to Eome and lodged at Lucca at the house
of a man named Peter, who gave them the following
explanation of the devotion to St. Edmund which they
had remarked in the city. A wealthy man and his wife
living in the suburbs had an only son, a little boy,
whom they passionately loved. When they saw the
child growing up weak and feeble, they were over-
whelmed with grief. Physicians could give no cure,
so they carried the boy to the shrines of saints ;
they burnt lights in many sanctuaries ; they gave
abundant alms to the poor and to the Church. The
child only grew weaker and weaker, till it hovered
between life and death. At this juncture a certain
venerable priest unexpectedly visited them and put
the question, " Whether they knew of the holy King
Edmund, who rested incorrupt in England, and
through whom the Lord did wonderful things ? "
A miracle there. They answered that they had never heard of him.
Then he commanded them to carry the child at once
into the city to the church of blessed Martin and
to lay it upon the steps of the altar of the martyr
Edmund, and to keep vigil there. Hastening to the
church, they lighted tapers to the saint; they knelt
through the livelong day in prayer. As darkness
came on, wearied out with watching, they fell asleep.

Lucca on his way to Rome, and he brought thence a fac-simile
of the renowned crucifix Volto Santo of Lucca, the work of St.
Nicodemus, which was venerated for centuries n St. Edmund's
abbey church. To Leofstan and Baldwin Lucca probably owes its
two valuable medieval MSS. of St. Abbo's "Vitaet Passio Sti
Edmundi." See Battely, p. 42.
1 "Inporticu ecclesue."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE. 259

When they awoke at break of day, they found the
child alive and well, sitting, up and playing with
the leaves of thyme with which in those days they
carpeted the floor of the church. The host Peter
affirmed to the two English pilgrims that he had
seen the boy sick and dying and just afterwards full
of health. Other people saw the miracle, so that
when an annual feast in honour of St. Edmund was
instituted, crowds from all parts flocked to its cele-
bration. l

Herman relates two other stories connected with A reiic possessed

by the abbot of

relics of the " exuvue Sti Edmundi. It appears by Rfi>aix.
the first that Warner, the devout abbot of Eebaix
in Hainault, a man of extraordinary literary and
musical powers, visited St. Edmund's. The monks
received him with their customary ceremonies and
hospitality, and he composed for them four antiphons
in honour of St. Edmund, which he put to the sweetest
music. He became a great favourite with the monks,
and at his departure Abbot Baldwin gave him a relic
in order that he might spread devotion to the royal
martyr in foreign parts. 2 After crossing the sea
and while passing through Ponthieu on his way to
St.-Kiquier, he fell into the hands of bandits, who
stripped him of everything. Gerwin, abbot of St.-
Pdquier, who was universally feared and respected,
distressed at his brother's mishap, at once sought out
the robbers, and by threats and persuasions forced
them to give up their spoil. The relic of St. Edmund,

1 At the present day there is no trace of this relic at Lucca.
A lot of relics in confusion exist, but that of St. Edmund is not
among them. Being of silk or linen only, it has probably long
since fallen to dust. Cardinal Franciotti, a native of Lucca, A.D.
1570, in his " Lives of the Saints " connected with the city, makes
no mention of a relic of St. Edmund in the list of the treasures
at San Martino.

2 "In exteras regiones."

260 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

however, which the pious Warner valued more than
all his goods, was lost. All that night till about
dawn he lay awake lamenting it. When he fell
asleep, it seemed to him as if St. Edmund came and
laid his hand upon his breast and with reassuring
words told him that the relic was there. Next
morning he found it as the vision said, and he laid it
afterwards upon the altar in his abbey church.

Abbot Baldwin's Herman's second story relates how Abbot Baldwin
being in Normandy at the court of William and
Matilda, with whom he was often in request both
as counsellor and physician, sent a soldier named
Norman to his abbey for news and medicine and
other necessaries, and above all for a phylactery of
St. Edmund. l Norman, desirous of returning without
delay, took passage on a boat which was just setting
sail, with sixty passengers, thirty-six head of cattle,
sixteen horses and a heavy cargo. When out at sea a
storm arose which threatened the utter destruction of the
vessel. Then Norman, who was sleeping by the side of
his horse, saw St. Edmund approach him, who bade him
rise and not forget his relic. Norman awoke, and,
raising aloft in his hand the reliquary winch hung
from his neck, he called upon captain and men to
pray to God and St. Edmund to save them. As they
knelt in prayer the storm abated, and they reached
port in safety. On the same journey Baldwin's
messenger ascribed his safe passage of a peril-
ous ford to the like protection of the saint's phy-
lactery.

other portions. A heading in the Bodleian MS. 240 f. 646, entitled
" De Mantica cum reliquiis Sti Ednmndi furata et
postea miraculose inventa," 2 shows that other relics

1 Phylacterium (see Ducange) was a case containing a relic.

2 About a wallet containing relics of St. Edmund which was
stolen and afterwards miraculously found.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 261

of the saint existed, and probably they also consisted
of pieces of his robes.

These relics, however, iudcjing from the custom of The monk Her

man displays the

the church, were in most instances very small. The J.'^rt^'s [eobes to
greater portion of the martyr's robes lay in their
crystal case in the "Chapel of the Eelics," as the
following interesting story proves : l Brother Herman,
a monk of St. Edmund's and a friend of Tolinus,
frequently preached to the people. One Whit-Sunday,
moved by the crowds of people, and carried away
by his fervour, he summarily brought out the chest
of relics and displayed the martyr's robes to the
faithful, who, giving praise to God, approached and
reverenced them. Three weeks after, some nobles
who heard of the incident devoutly begged the favour
which had been accorded to the common people.
The brethren assented and privately presented the
relics to be kissed in the crypt. The news soon
spread, and an immense multitude of both sexes
flocked to the abbey and refused to leave without
seeing the relics. To allay the excitement, the coffer
containing them was placed on a wooden stand in
the middle of the apse, and Herman exposed them
for veneration. He even took the camisia, or under-
garment, purple with the martyr's blood, from the
casket, pointed out the blood-stains and arrow-rents
and even unfolded it for the people to kiss. The
devout virgin Seietha, with soul magnifying God,
looked on, while the holy robe diffused a fragrance
surpassing anything earthly, as the crowd bore witness.

That same day Herman fell sick, and the following HO is punished

• i . m i« • T» ii -n i • -,1 for his irrever-

night iolmus, appearing to Brother Edwin with a ence.
severe countenance, strongly blamed him and the
other brethren for their irreverence. "The camisia
of St. Edmund," he said, " for the sake of vulgar
1 Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.

262

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYR.

st. Edmund'

st. Edmund

sword.

William's

applause has been carelessly taken from its casket
and still more carelessly unfolded, so that the martyr's
blood which clung to it has fallen to the ground and
perished." Edwin gave the message to the brethren,
and on the third day at sunset Herman died, — a severe
lesson to those who treat the relics of saints without care.

s Besides his garments the monks religiously pre-
served the psalter from which St. Edmund in his
younger days studied the outpourings of the royal
Prophet's soul. According to Blomefield and Butler
this priceless volume found its way after the dissolu-
tion of the abbey to the library of St. James' church
at Bury.

s St. Edmund's abbey possessed another memento of

. ...

its illustrious protector in his sword, which lay in
its scabbard among the other relics. l The " Eegis-
trum Eubrum " relates the following dream in connec-
tion with this sword : 2 When William Bateman,
bishop of Norwich, attempted to subject the abbey
to his visitation and jurisdiction (A.D. 1345), William
of Hengham, a monk of devout and religious life and
keeper of the shrine, while asleep upon a bench 3 to
the right of the high altar, saw the martyr clothed
in royal robes, crowned and armed, rise from the
shrine and go towards the chapel of the relics, where
Ailwin, his chamberlain, drew the sword from its
ain. scabbard and respectfully presented it to his master,
who, taking it from the monk's hand, proceeded with
an animated but placid countenance through the
church into the open air, the doors opening to him

1 From two instances at least in which St. Edmund appeared
and pointed to his sword with such words as " Hsec est victoria
qua mundum vicit yEdmundus," we may imply that the sword in
the Chapel of the Relics was at least emblematic of the sword of
martyrdom, if not the actual instrument.

2 Yates' " History of Bury," p. 110.

3 " Super bancum."

263

with a great noise but without any human assistance.
The vision distressed the sleeping monk, who thought
that the saint was abandoning his abbey. The return
of the martyr, however, after a short absence com-
forted him. He saw him deliver the sword now
covered with blood to his faithful Ailwin, who, after
cleansing and sheathing it, restored it to its place
and disappeared. Then blessed Edmund laid himself
to rest again in his shrine. The bishop lost his suit
the very next day, and afterwards, prosecuting it in
the pope's court, he suddenly expired, exclaiming with
Ids last breath, as many in the Eoman court bear
witness : " Bury ! Bury ! Saint Edmund ! Saint Ed-
mund ! " This failure of the bishop's claim and the
previous vision of Brother William naturally caused
the monks to attribute their victory to their royal
patron. The incident is mentioned here, however,
merely as a record of the existence of St. Edmund's
sword. 1

The next relic of the saint, his drinking-cup, was st. Edmund's

cup.

kept in Abbot Samson's time on the rood-beam near
the shrine. An oaken box bound with iron bands and
fastened with an iron lock enclosed it. At the fire
in 1198 the monks showed the deepest anxiety for this
precious relic, till they found it in its singed linen
cloth among some pieces of charred wood. An indul-
gence of five hundred days " toties quoties " was
granted to pilgrims who drank from it " in the wor-
shippe of God and Saint Edmund," and hence its name
of "Pardon Bowl." The Books of Miracles2 recount

1 Osbertde Clare in his second book of St. Edmund's Miracles,
no. xviii. (Cott. MS. Titus A. viii.) mentions the cure of a
monk of Shrewsbury, to whom the martyr appeared with a sword
on which was inscribed, " This is the victory by which Edmund
overcame the world."

2 Osbert de Clare, Cott. MS. Titus A. viii., bk. ii. nos. xiii.
xiv. xix. See also Bodl. MS. 240 fol. 656-658-659 for miracles
"De Cipho Sti Edmund i."

264 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

several instances of sick persons regaining their health
on drinking from St. Edmund's cup, notably a rich
lady after long suffering from fever ; a Dunwich man
with dropsy ; and Gervasius, a Cluniac monk of St.
Saviour's, Southwark, who himself related it to the
writer of the miracle. This same Gervasius, meeting
with a fresh malady almost immediately afterwards,
was carried by the monks to their infirmary. There

Miracles by

drinking from it. he begged to drink again from the martyr's cup, and
the seniors brought it to him from the treasury.
That night he recovered, and next day, the feast of
St. Edmund, he went to the church to give thanks,
" Thus," concludes the narrator, " mayest thou work.
0 Edmund, venerated and illustrious king in Christ,
that God may magnify thy glory through the ages
and by the fulness of thy virtues exalt His own
name everywhere upon earth." l

tenner?unds Among the relics of St. Edmund his banner or
standard holds an historic position. Lydgate describes
two banners. The first, merely symbolic of the
martyr's virtues, is depicted in the poet's richly illu-
minated work with the device of three gold crowns
on an azure ground :

" Which (banneret) ....

King Edmund bar certeyn,
When he was sent be grace of Goddis hond,
At Geyneburuk for to slew Kyng Sweyn."

The other standard,2 which went before King
Edmund in his royal progresses and overshadowed

1 A second cup of St. Edmund seems to have belonged to
Henry, last Earl of Lincoln of that name, who gave it to the
abbey about the reign of Henry \TI. This cup had a bowl of
silver gilt, and altogether was a piece of rare workmanship.
The earl's chaplain, wearing a surplice, on great feasts offered his
patron's most dignified guests to drink from this bowl.

2 See the print of it in the Camden edition of Jocelin's Chronicle,
vol. 13, p. 183, and also the magnificent illumination of it which
forms the frontispiece of the Harleian MS. 2278.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 265

his armies in the battle-field, represented on a bright
red ground the tree of knowledge embroidered in gold
with silver fruit. The horizontal branches of the tree sM^01
divided the banner into two. In the lower part, on
either side, worked in silver, Adam and Eve stood
about to eat the forbidden fruit, which the serpent,
twined round the trunk and represented with a
human shape down to the middle, handed to . the
woman. In the centre of the upper part a circle of
gold surrounded the Agnus Dei or Holy Lamb in
silver with a gold glory around the head, its right
foot bearing up a golden cross fleurde fitclite. The
red ground of the upper part was powdered with
golden crescents within the circle and with stars of
gold outside. Gold stars also bespangled the tree.
The Benedictine poet of St. Edmund's abbey thus
describes this ancient and venerable piece of East
Anglian workmanship :

" Blyssyd Edmund, kyng, martir and vyrgyne, Lydg te's de-

Hadde, in thre vertues, by grace of soveryn prys

Be which he venquysshed all venymes serpentyne.

Adam ba serpent banysshed fro paradys ;

Eva also, because she was not wys,

Eet off an appyl off flesshly fals plesance.

Which thre figures, Edmund, by <jret avys,

Bar in his baner, for a remembrance,

Lyk a wys kyng peeplys to governe.

Ay unto reson he gaff the sovereynte,

Figur off' Adam wysly to dyscerne

T' oppresse in Eva sensualite.

A Lamb off gold hyh upon a tre,

An hevenly signe, a tokne off most vertu

To declare how that humylite

Above alle vertues pleseth most Jesu.

Off Adamys synne was wasshe a way the rust

Be vertu only off thys lambys blood.

The serpentys venym and al flesshly lust

Sathan outraied a geyn man, most wood,

Tyme whan this lamb was oflred on the rood

266

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Its efficacy
against fires.

The battle of
St. Edmund's
Standard.

For our redempcioun, to which havyng reward,
This hooly martir, this blyssyd kyng so good,
Bar this lamb hiest a loffte in his standard.
The feeld of Gowlys was tokne off his suffrance
Whan cruel Danys were with hym at \verre ;
And for a signe off royal siiffisance
That no vices never maad hym erre,
The feeld powdryd with many hevenly sterre,
And half cressantis off gold, ful bryht and cleer.
And wher that evere he journeyde nyh or ferre
Ay in the feeld with hym was this baneer."1

The poet next describes its miraculous efficacy
against fires and conflagrations. Those who wish,
he remarks, can easily verify the cases in which it
is said to have extinguished devouring flames.

An historical instance of the use of St. Edmund's
banner occurred in 1173, when the battle 'of Fornham,
on which the fate of king and kingdom depended, was
fought and won under its protection. Henry II.'s
three sons, Henry (who had been crowned king in
1170), Itichard and Geoffrey, with the support of the
kings of France and Scotland, the Count of Flanders
and several powerful nobles, formed against their
father as formidable a combination as ever opposed
English or European sovereign. The civil war broke
out in England in the summer of 1173, and at the
same time the Scots began their raids on the northern
borders. While the royal forces battled witli the in-
surgents in the north, Eobert Earl of Leicester with a
The invasion of lame force of Flemings landed at Walton-le-Naze in

East Anglia.

Suffolk on the 29th of September, and Earl Bigot re-
ceived him with open arms at Framlingham Castle,
twenty miles inland. The people of the neighbour-
ing district anxiously assembled in considerable force
under the Earls of Cornwall, Gloucester, and Arundel,

1 This extract from the beginning of the Harl. MS. 2278 has
been printed by Sir Harris Nicholas in the " Retrospective
Review," N.S., vol. i. pp. 98-100.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 267

to" :repel the insurgents and save their homes from
destruction. Meanwhile the news of this fresh incur-
sion filled the royal leaders in the north with dismay.
Concealing the intelligence from the Scots, they patched
up a hasty truce and marched southwards to St.
Edmund's- Bury. They had scarcely entered the town Theroyai army

at St. Edmund's

when the Earl of Leicester, not aware of their presence, Bury,
in forcing his way to his own county, passed Eornham-
St.-Genevieve within four miles of the north gate.
The king and his adherents committed their cause to St.
Edmund. They begged for the royal martyr's standard
from the hands of Abbot Hugh, and with it unfurled at
the head of their force they marched to meet the
invaders on the right bank of the Larke. Imitating the
Northerners with the improvised standard of St. Cuth- Fomham-st.-

Genevifrve,

bertrs corporal, they placed their sacred banner in a Oct. 13, 1173.
conspicuous position and attacked the insurgents, whom
they routed in a few hours. Ten thousand of the
enemy were left dead on the field. The victors
returned to the abbey to restore the sacred standard,
now more precious than ever in the eyes of the people
east of the fens, and to sing the " Te Deum " at St.
Edmund's shrine. For centuries after this English
victory, the greatest nobles contended for the right
of carrying St. Edmund's banner.

The following narrative from the Bodleian MS. 240 An arrow at st

Edmund the

indicates the existence of a relic, in the shape of an Martyr's in

London.

arrow, at St. Edmund's church in London in the
14th or 15th century. A rector of that church,
wishing to exchange benefices with a country vicar,
stipulated to take with him from the church an
arrow, said to be one of the instruments of St.
Edmund's martyrdom, and which he therefore
valued more than gold. On entering a barge at
Billingsgate to proceed by water to his vicarage, the
barge remained immovable in the water. Only after

268 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

he had returned to shore with the relic could the
boatman proceed. Eesolving to go by land, some
invisible power stopped him on the bridge, and against
his will he at last restored the arrow to its former
resting-place.
Pieces of st. The last ancient relics of St. Edmund of which there

Edmund s coffin.

is record are some pieces of his coffin which the
Cluniacs of Thetford kept among their treasures. l
They perhaps belonged to the old coffin which Theodred
the Good replaced by a new one in 950. No history,
however, exists of these pieces of wood, or how they
were obtained, and, like the martyr's garment, arrow,
psalter, sword, cup and standard, they are probably
lost forever.
The oak of the One memento, however, of the royal martyr sur-

mavtyrdom

vived in his own land to the present century. A
tradition unbroken for generations pointed out in
Hoxne or Heglesdune wood the oak-tree to which
King Edmund was bound by his executioners, and
which our Catholic forefathers venerated as a priceless
memorial of the saint's martyrdom. Langtoft thus
commemorates it :

" Where he was shot a noble chapel standes,

And somwhat of that tree that thei bond untill his handes. " 2

Fell in August, On a calm summer's evening in the August of 1848,

1848.

this venerable witness of the Christian Edmund's
victory, wrinkled and gnarled with the storms of a
thousand winters, fell by its own weight. On splitting
up the trunk the saw grated on a hard substance in
the heart of the tree, which proved on examination to
be a delicate little arrow-head firmly embedded in a

1 Thetford Priory, " Monasticon," vol. v. p. 148, edit. 1821.

2 An old legend says that wolves from the country round, Avhen
wounded or worn out with age, crawled to the foot of this sacred
tree to die.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 269

black knot that had grown round it, a fact which the An arrow-head
Antiquarian Society of London considered as an un- bedded in it.
questionable confirmation of the ancient tradition.
Sir Edward Kerrison, on whose estate the oak stood,
preserved the piece of wood with the arrow adhering to
it, and exhibited it for some time in the museum of
the Athemieum at St. Edmund's Bury. 1

The English Benedictines of St. Edmund's monastery some portions

are preserved at

at Douai in France obtained possession of a large piece st. Edmund's,
of the oak2 in December, 1848, which they now
preserve on the high altar of their chapel. The
Jesuit fathers at Bury-St.-Edmtmd's also possess a And at Bury.
piece of the hallowed tree in their church in the
martyr's own town.

At the end of this chapter on the sacred body and The return of st.

Edmund to

relics of St. Edmund, the question naturally conies to Enslaud-
the lips, when will the royal martyr, according to the
old prophecy, return to his own land ? England is the
natural home of St. Edmund as it is of every English
saint. When the hour of doom came for Jerusalem,
a voice was heard through the streets proclaiming that
the saints were departing from the city. The besieged
then knew that God had given up His favoured city
to vengeance and would not be appeased. The banish-
ment of our holy ones from the eyes and hearts of the
people signalled England's fate, and their removal in
body and in spirit foreboded its evil day. May their
return to honour and veneration proclaim that the
time of vengeance is passed and the hour of recon-
ciliation at hand !

1 Lady Eateman of Hoxne Hall — recently named Oakley Park
— is its present happy owner, and other pieces of the oak are still
in the hands of her agent.

2 Through the united kindness of Rev. L. F. Page, of Woolpit
Parsonage, Suffolk, the Rev. R. Cobbold, Rector of Wostham, and
Mr. C. Smythies, agent of Sir Edward Kerrison, by whose
permission he made the gift.

2.70

CHAPTER X.

Tlie Miracles of St. Edmund.

[Authorities.— Special records of the miracles of St. Edmund were kept by the
guardians of the shrine at least from the time of the translation of the
sacred body to Beodrics worth in 903. These earliest registers have perished,
however, and their contents only partially reach us through other sources, of
which St. Abbo's "Vita" is the first. The next and oldest register of
miracles properly so called is the fine eleventh century MS. in the Cottonian
collection. Tiber B. ii., entitled "Miracula B. Edmundi Regis," auctore
Hermanno archidiacono. Its age and style seem to denote it as the
author's autograph. It is also probably the " Book of Miracles " referred to
by Matthew of Westminster (vol. i. p. 509, Bohn's edit.) The writer has first
transcribed St. Abbo's "Vita." The record of miracles follows, fol. 19, and
continues to fol. 84, where the narrative ends abruptly shortly after the
description of the translation of the relics into the new church in 1095. St.
Edmund's name at lirst is written in emerald and gold, but after a few pages
the spaces for it are left blank, the illuminator not having completed his work.
"There is considerable doubt," writes Hardy, "as to the identity of the
individual here styled Herman the archdeacon." In the opening lines the
illuminator neglected to fill in the author's name, but a 15th century hand
has written at the foot of fol. 19, " Incipiunt miracula scripta ab Hermano
Archidiacono tempore Baldeweni circa annum Christi 1070." A 14th century
note records the same fact in Bodl. 240. The author in his preface writes
that not " his own presumption, but the command of Abbot Baldwin of happy
memory, led him to compile his work," partly from oral testimony and partly
from an old register then in the abbey library. Again in the body of the MS.,
in narrating the punishment of Bishop Herfast, he speaks of himself as one of
that prelate's officials. There can be little doubt, then, that Herman was
archdeacon of Norwich, and in later life a monk of St. Edmund's Bury, to
which he shows an enthusiastic attachment in every page of his work. Several
copies of Herman's "Miracula" exist. A complete copy, made by Father
Augustine Baker, the Benedictine, in the 17th century, and entitled by Butler
the " Liber Feretrariorum," is in the library of Jesus College, Oxford, 75. 30.
The Bodleian Library possesses another copy in the small llth century MS.,
Digby, no. 39, fol. 24-39, which once belonged to the monastery of St. Mary,
Abingdon. The 13th century MS., " Liber Miraculorum S. Edmundi Orienta-
HumAnglorum Regis, auctore anonymo," of the Bibl. du Roi, 2621, is merely
an abridgement of Herman's work, ending with the cure of the crippled
woman. Dom Martene has printed this piece in his " Amplissima Collectio."
torn. vi. p. 821, the MS. being at the time in the library of the king of France.
Herman's compilation has lately been edited in full by von F. Lieberman in
" Ungedruckte-Anglq-Xormannische Geschichtsquellen " (Triibner and Co.,
Strasburg and London), and also by Arnold in his " Memorials of St. Edmund's
Abbey," I., Rolls Series.

The beautifully written volume Titus A. viii. in the Cottoniau collection, a
MS. of the 13th century, contains after the Life of St. Abbo, which Butler
inadvertently ascribes to Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster, two books "on
the Miracles of St. Edmund." The prologue to Book I. begins by saying that,
as the deeds of worldlings are lauded to the skies, so the marvels of God in
His saints should be proclaimed without fear. Edmund as a shining light
placed upon a candlestick, " tit luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt," — " that he
may shine to all that are in the house," — is illustrious not only in Britain but
beyond the seas by his miracles, sixteen of which the author proceeds to
relate. Book II. begins with an eulogistic prologue on the royal martyr, the
conclusion of which compares his virtue to the precious stones in Aaron's
breastplate. A description of Abbot Baldwin's translation and of nineteen
miracles follows. A fifteenth century hand has added, " Here is found wanting
the miracle wrought by St. Edmund on Henry of Essex, also innumerable

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 271

L others." In the margin a 14th century hand has written, " Expliciunt miracula
scripta per Osbertum de Clare Priorem Westmonasteriensem,"— " Here end the
miracles written by Osbert de Clare, prior of Westminster." The cure of Robert
of Hasley, a canon of Hereford, is added, signed " Per Willelmum Heyhorn.
Amen." The name is in the same hand-writing as the main part of the MS. and
is probably that of the scribe who wrote it. The authorship of this collection
of thirty-seven miracles is twofold. Osbert of Clare in Essex, prior of
Westminster, A.D. 1108-1140, was the original compiler; but his work, says
Bale, began " Cum laureatus Dei Martyr Kdmundus.'1 If so, as a complete
work, it is lost. The present MS. is an adapted and partly rewritten copy by
an author whose identity the Bodl. MS. 240 firmly establishes by placing
opposite to extracts from it the marginal notes, " Ex libro de miraculis ejus,
Sampson ; " " Sampson abbas Sancti Edmundi ; " " Ex libro priino miraculbruiu
Sampsonis Abbatis," and the like. Samson, however, must be regarded rather
as a compiler than as an original author. To the first book lie prefixed a
preface of his own, and then rewrote the miracles of Herman aiul others in his
own grave and earnest style. In the second book he begins with Osbert de
Clare's prologue, distinguishable by its florid but not unpleasant style ; then he
gives eight chapters from unknown sources and copies the rest to no. xx. from
Prior Osbert. No. xxi. was added after Samson's death. MS. Budl. 240,
described at length in Chap. II., after ninety mii-acles extracted from Herman,
Osbert de Clare and others, gives on fol. (5(51 the "miracula excerpta de parvo
quodam antiquo quaternio ad feretrum," — "miracles extracted from a quaint little
register kept at the shrine;"— on fol. 067, other miracles from another old
register kept at the shrine ; fol. 672, the " miracula xvii. facta apud Wainflete,
1374-75," — "tht xvii. miracles wrought at H'ainfleet, 137lt-75," — and fol. 674, the
"miracula sea in capella sci Edmundi de Lynge," — " the miracles in the
sanctuary of St. Edmund at Lyng." These extracts from the most authentic
.sources are extremely valuable and interesting in any account of the super-
natural manifestations of the royal martyr.

Of other MSS. bearing on the miracles of St. Edmund, Ashmole 403, ff. 70-71>,
holds the first place. It was written by Lydgate for presentation to Edward
IV., as Harl. 2278 was for presentation to Henry VI. After the " Life and Acts
of St. Edmund" the poet dese.ribes his banner and records his miracles, of
which the last took place April 28, 1441. Gerald Cambrensis relates a
curious incident which happened at St. Edmund's Bury in his time, and the
annals of Toulouse refer to more recent ones.]

A history of St. Edmund would be incomplete with- General view ot

. . .-HIT- i ,, i • i the miraculous.

out some further mention ot the "Miracles which
generations of records attribute to him. It is not
intended to write a vindication of them here. Their
possibility to the Creator and Euler of the universe
cannot be a subject of discussion among His children
and believers. Whether He uses supernatural or 1111-
fathomed natural forces to bring about those extra-
ordinary results which we call miraculous, is of little
moment. God can manifest divine power in which-
ever way He wills. That He has done so times without
number is beyond reasonable dispute. The history of
the patriarchs and prophets in the old dispensation
and of the apostles and saints in the new affords
overwhelming evidence of the fact. Indeed, not only
His own glory, the honour of His servants and the
spread of His kingdom demand it, but the soul of man
unconsciously looks for these displays of God's existence

272 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

and provident watchfulness over the interests of
His creatures. The invisible world surrounds man so
closely that it would be the strangest of phenomena
if it did not sometimes visibly affect his material
being. Apart from these general principles a wide
field is still left open for the discussion of evidence
for and against any miracle in particular. To be ac-
cepted each must rest on testimony which no historian
can reject or impartial judge refuse. Some of St.
Edmund's miracles hardly deserve the name : his
clients saw in them the supernatural, where others
would see only the natural ; but all of them are in-
teresting pictures of the customs and habit of thought
of the times.

The chroniclers The keepers of the shrine from a very early date
miracles". inscribed them as they happened in the libri feretrari-
orum, or registers of the feretry. The priests and
clerics who devoted themselves to the service of St.
Edmund soon after the translation of his body to
Beodricsworth wrote them in the small and crabbed
hand which Herman found so difficult to decipher.
With a simplicity all its own later writers copied them
into the monastic chronicles and added other marvels
which they had seen themselves or heard from eye-
witnesses. Of these writers St. Abbo stands first for
his learning and culture ; then come Gaufridus, bishop
of Ely ; Herman, the archdeacon of Norwich, who had
conversed with the holy bishop Ailwin, the saint's
" chamberlain ; " Osbert de Clare, prior of Westmin-
ster, whose refined taste is noticeable in every line of
his picturesque Latin ; and William of Malmesbury
and Abbot Sarnson, both historical for common sense.
The honesty of such men is unimpeachable, and to the
modern criticism of their narratives they would pro-
bably reply in the words of Venerable Bede : " Is it to
be wondered at that the sick should be healed in that

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 273

place where he died ? for, whilst he lived, he never .
ceased to provide for the poor and infirm, and to
bestow alms on them and to assist them." x Never-
theless in this sceptical age an account of St. Edmund's
miracles would perhaps be ill-timed, if they did not
fill so important a page in the royal martyr and the
nation's history.

" On the death of St. Edmund, the purity of his past A retrospect of
life," writes William of Malmesbury, 2 " was evidenced miracles.
by unheard-of miracles. The lifeless head uttered a
voice inviting all who were in search of it to approach ;
a wolf, a beast accustomed to prey upon dead carcases,
was holding it in its paws, and guarding it intact,
which animal also, after the. manner of a tame creature,
gently followed the bearers to the tomb and neither did
nor received injury." The people committed the sacred
body to the earth, turfed over the grave, and sheltered it
with a wooden chapel of mean and slight construction.
" The negligent natives, however, were soon made sen-
sible of the virtue of the martyr by the miracles which
he performed." At night a column of heavenly light
hovered over the spot ; a blind man received his sight
there. At last Theodred I. exhumed the body, to find
" the sacred limbs evidencing the glory of his unspotted
soul by surprising soundness and a milk-like whiteness.
The head, which was formerly divided from the neck,
was again united to the rest of the body, showing only
the sign of martyrdom by a purple seam." 3 So bishop
and clergy and people translated it to the comparative-
ly handsome structure at Beodricsworth,." where," says
St. Abbo, " in him such glorious powers shine fortli and
are recounted far and wide, as were never before heard
of among the English people."

1 Bede's " Ecclesiastical History," Bohn's edit., p. 124.

2 " Chronicle of the Kings," Bohn's edit., pp. 240-241.

3 William of Malmesbury, ibid.

274 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

st. Edmund Of all these manifestations of the supernatural the

makes the un- . , . , . _ .

just fear him, most striking class comprises those punishments inflic-
ted on the invaders of St. Edmund's rights or sanctuary.
They were so well known and believed in as to create a
traditional fear of St. Edmund throughout the nation.
" He was felt capable of doing now, what he used to do
before, " remarks William of Malmesbury ; " that is,

" ' To spare the suppliant, but confound the proud,'

by which means he so completely attached the inhabi-
tants of all Britain to him, that every person looked
upon himself as particularly happy in contributing
either money or gifts to St. Edmund's monastery ; even
kings themselves, who rule others, boasted of being his
servants and sent him their royal crown, redeeming it,
if they required to wear it, at a great price. The
exactors of taxes also, who, in other places, gave loose
to injustice, were there suppliant, and ceased their
cavilling at St. Edmund's boundary, admonished thereto
by the punishment of others who had presumed to
overpass it." l The monks doubtless gave prominence
to those miracles by which their patron defended his
own with such power. They could not repel force by
force. Providence, therefore, gave them this means of
keeping at bay the unbridled power of kings and
A. P. HOB, barons. So, when King Eichard was in captivity and
the royal justiciaries drew on the treasuries of every
abbey and church in the land, St. Edmund's shrine
remained untouched. The gold could be pealed off, they
said, at least in parts, and afterwards replaced ; but
Abbot Samson, starting up, answered them : " Know ye
for certain that I will in no wise do this thing, nor is
there any man who could force me to consent thereto.
But I will open the doors of the church ; let him that

1 "Chronicle of Kings," Bonn's edit., p. 242; see also "De
Gestis Pontif.," lib. ii. f. 136, b, edit, Lond.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 275

likes enter ; let him that dares come forward ! " The
justiciaries were afraid to move in the matter. With
oath, each for himself, they answered, " I will not
come forward for my share ; " " Nor will I ! Nor I !
The distant and the absent who offend him, St.
Edmund has been known to punish fearfully : much
more will he those who close by lay violent hands on
his coat, and would strip it off ! " The shrine was left
untouched ; " for," adds the modern eulogist of those
times, " Lords of the Treasury have in all times their
impassable limits, be it by ' force of public opinion ' or
otherwise ; and in those days a heavenly awe over-
shadowed and encompassed, as it still ought and
must, all earthly business whatsoever."1

The historical punishments which inspired this By miraculously

,. . ,, , punishing the

wholesome fear begin with the robbers who were trans- sacrilegious in-

vaders of his

fixed in their sacrilegious attempt to enter Beodrics- 1-ishts-
worth church and plunder the shrine. The slaying
of King Sweyn years afterwards made a still deeper
impression, and the event was everywhere perpetuated
along the east coast in stone and window, the royal
martyr being represented with spear in hand and the
Danish tyrant dead at his feet.

The case of Llafford Leofstan 2 still f urtlier illustrates The instance

.. 1111 i n °f Llaftbrd

this class of miracle. It probably happened after Leofstan,
the induction of the Benedictines. A poor woman,
the chronicler relates, one 1st of May, fled to
the shrine of the martyr to escape the notorious
severity of the " king's man," Sheriff Leofstan, who
was holding his court on the moot-hill, Thinghogo,
near the sanctuary. On hearing of the criminal's flight
the judge, scoffing at St. Edmund's protection, sent
his men to apprehend her ; when Bomfild, the priest,

1 Carlyle, " Past and Present," p. 92, edit. 1843.
- A different person from young Count Leofstan or Abbot
Leofstan.

276 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

who causes a and Leofric, the levite, met them at the church-door

woman to be , . , , .

dragged from and forbade them entrance; tor 'whom the saint

the shrine.

receives in sanctuary," they said, " can by no means
be delivered up for condemnation." Thus the church
protected the oppressed and ensured mercy as well as
justice. The men persisted and threatened force.
Whereupon the guardians of the shrine fell on their
knees and began reciting the seven penitential psalms
and the litanies. Meanwhile Leofstan, enraged at
the delay in the execution of his orders, hastened to
support his men ; but lie got no farther than the tomb
For ins im >iet °^ Bundus the priest. There he was seized with mad-
mldnessZandWlth ness> an(l r°Ued on the ground in a fit, foaming at
the mouth and gnashing his teeth. Finally he expired,
and his body was thrown into a stagnant pool, while
the poor woman escaped.1
one of William On another occasion one of the Conqueror's Norman

the Conqueror's . . .

followers seizes followers, expecting the same impunity tor lawlessness

a manor belong-

EcfmuPd' as k*s comrades in the rest of England, unjustly
annexed a manor which belonged to St. Edmund.
The abbot and monks protested. " With unbridled
tongue," the insolent Norman answers " that he knows
not what the sleeping Edmund will do with the land ;
that it will be far more useful to him than to monk
or martyr." A few days after a white tumour of the

ftns upon 'him6 size °f a pea suddenly grew on the pupil of his right
eye, and there it remained. At the instance of his
friends rather than of his own free will, he sent
a large wax candle as an offering to the martyr.

ewMHebreaks -^ut ^he samts by the power of God sometimes see
into pieces. the inmost }iearfc Of mail> an(j God an(j gt- Edmund

refused the light which an evil mind and an un-
repentant heart had lighted. The taper, an eye-
witness relates, fell to the ground and broke into

1 Samson adds that his ghost troubled the neighbourhood and
was with difficulty laid.

SAINT EDMUND, KING. AND MARTYR. 277

nine pieces. " Iniquorum dona non probat Altissimus,"
concludes Herman ; — " The Most High approveth not
the gifts of the wicked." l

An incident of a similar kind is related to have The attempt of

Robert de

occurred in the first year of the reign of William curzun.A.D.ios?,

Eufus.2 Robert de Curzuu prevailed on Roger Bigot,

sheriff of Norfolk, to let him seize upon the saint's

manor of South wold, 3 which, he said, was in the centre

of his domain. When, however, he rode with his TO seize the

saint's manor

followers to take possession, a storm of wind and hail of soutimoid.
accompanied by thunder and lightning raged with
such violence that he believed it to be supernatural,
and, dreading what might happen, he desisted. But
two of his men, Turold, his dapifer, and Gyrenew de TWO followers
Mouneyn, persevered in the unjust proceeding and lost struck mad.
their reason.4 So far Herman ; Samson adds that
William de Curzun, a successor of Robert, in the woiiamde

Curzun, a

fourteenth year of the reign of Henry II., renewed successor

of Robert,

the claim on Southwold, through Richard, archdeacon at"ee,^stthe
of Poictiers,5 at whose representation the king granted A-D- Hti8-
a mandate for its surrender. William at once pro-
ceeded to the abbey armed with the royal letters, and
demanded their execution. Abbot Hugh naturally
requested a short delay. Then we have a picture of
the baffled noble hurrying to London to recount how
another priest, like Archbishop Thomas, is defying
the royal will, and of the prior despatched to court

1 Ecclus. xxxiv. 23. - The Bodl. MS. dates this incident 1087.

3 On the coast of Suffolk. Its church is named after St. Edmund
to this day.

4 The Bodleian MS. 240 adds that Roger Bigot about the year
1107, claiming another farm of St. Edmund's, and being about
to bring an action against Abbot Roger, died very suddenly, his
body being afterwards taken to Norwich and buried by Bishop
Herfast.

5 One of the most astute supporters of Henry II. against St.
Thomas a Becket, by whom he was excommunicated in 1166.

278 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

by the abbot to represent the monks' side. Arch-
deacon Richard tries the case and, mirdbile dictu I
grants a delay till the Nativity of St. John the
Baptist ; it was then Whitweek. The prior returns
home, and on the same day William leaves London to
be ready to seize Southwold. But at the hospice at
Sen mddenly Chelmsford he was suddenly taken ill. He prosecuted
his journey on the morrow as far as Colchester Abbey,
where the monks received him a raving maniac. His
attendants and even his own wife, horror-struck,
abandoned him. So he remained "pauno involutus" —
bound and bandaged, — yet kept under restraint with
the greatest difficulty. On the news reaching the
abbot's ears, he sent the prior to exhort the wretched
man to desist from his robbery; but he had lost all
memory. Then straightway Richard, one of his
attendants, stepped forward and promised to go bail
for his master, if only St. Edmund would take pity
on him. That night the madman's rabies subsided,
and, before the prior left next day, he had returned

claim.0118 to his right mind, abandoned his claim and vowed
himself a devout servant of St. Edmund for the
remainder of his life.

Prince Eustace The example of Eustace, son of King Stephen, is

despoils the .

martyr's lands, more striking and better known than any of the above

A.D. 1153.

narratives. In the time of Abbot Ording, A.D. 1153,
just after the succession to the throne had been settled
in favour of Prince Henry, and peace at last established,
Eustace came to St. Edmund's Bury. " He was angry
with his father," writes Stowe, who summarises the
incident, " for agreeing to this peace, and therefore in
a rage he departed from the court towards Cambridge,
to destroy that country. Coming to St. Edmund's
Bury, he was there honourably received and feasted,
but when he could not have such money as he
demanded to bestow among his men of war, he went

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 279

away in a rage, spoiling the corn in the fields belonging

to the abbey, and carrying it into the castles thereby ;

but, as he sat down to dinner, he fell mad upon receiv- anecuxpires.ma

ing the first morsel, and miserably died, and was buried

at Feversham."1

Here is a curious story of a thief told by Gerald A story by

Gerald Cam-

Cambrerisis, who affirms that it happened in his own trensis

day, about ten years before the death of Abbot Samson.

A wretched woman was wont to visit the shrine of

St. Edmund, not to make offerings herself, but to

steal what was offered by others. With pretence

of great devotion she would bow down and kiss of a woman who

stole at the

the iron plate before the shrine on which devout shrine
persons usually placed silver and gold, and while
kissing would take up the offerings with her mouth
and carry them away. She committed this sacri- And was axed
lege once too often, for her lips and tongue one
day stuck firm and fast to the table, while the
money she had licked up fell out of her mouth.
Christians and Jews ran to witness this spectacle,
for through the whole day the woman continued
with her lips fastened to the table — a wholesome
punishment and indeed a kindness, for the saint thus put
an end to the poor woman's propensity for stealing. 2

The anger of the martyr at the invasion of his Bishop Herfast

. i-i impugns the

rights was not only incurred by rough warriors and jurisdiction ot

the abbey,

silly women, but by pious ecclesiastics. The punish- A-D- 107°-
merit of Bishop Herfast supplies an interesting and

1 Quoted by Cressy.

2 The Bodl. MS. 297 mentions the similar case of a Fleming ap-
proaching the feretry under pretext of devotion and trying to bite
away a gold piece attached to it. His teeth are glued to the
coin, and he cannot stir. He confesses his act and is set free.
(See Appendix B of " Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey," vol. i.)
MS. Bodl. 240 has also a paragraph " De ultione capta super
quendam prsedatorem, rapientem pavonem de dominio S. Ed-
mundi."

280 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

historical illustration. He was a " major persona
nostris temporibus " — a rather important personage in
our time, — writes his archdeacon, Herman. Herfast
was elevated to the see of Elmham in 1070, but
removed it to Thetford, and further announced his
intention of finally establishing it at St. Edmund's
Bury. This transfer would have ruined the immuni-
ties and privileges of the abbey, and the alarmed
monks at once took speedy and energetic measures
to hinder the bishop from carrying out his design.
To give colour to his pretensions Herfast obtained
the king's licence to claim an old crozier kept in
the monastery, and, unable to obtain it by other means,
he bribed some one to bring it to him. He considered

He takes a the presence of the crozier in the abbey sufficient
proof that his predecessors exercised jurisdiction over
the monks of St. Edmund. Abbot Baldwin at once
applied for protection to Pope Alexander II., who
received him honourably and ordained him priest.
Lari franc and Thomas of York were then in Eome,
which gave greater weight to the decision of the
Apostolic See confirming all the privileges and ex-
emptions granted to the monastery by Bishop Ailwin
and King Canute. On Baldwin's return from Eome
Herfast refused to submit to the papal decree on
the plea that the appeal had been made without his
permission, and he still more strenuously prosecuted
his design, directing his archdeacon to write letters
for him to king and Pope. But one day, " as the
bishop was riding through a wood," writes his
archdeacon, "and conversing on the injury which

His chastise- he meditated against the monastery, a branch struck

ment.

him in the face so violently that the eyes were suffused
with blood and eventually became sightless : Sancti
effectualis ultio — an effectual punishment from the
saint." " One morning," continues Herman, " seeing

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAETYR. 281

him depressed and wretched, for his blindness affected
his whole body, out of pity I boldly said to him :
'My Lord Bishop, all your remedies are in vain.
No collyrium avails ; not even Hippocrates or Gal-
lienus could help you, unless God have compassion
on you. Seek the favour of God through St. Edmund.
•Go at once to Abbot Baldwin in humility and peace,
that God through him may heal you.' He rejected
this counsel at first, but when we all advised him
to follow it, he consented. That same day, the feast
of SS. Simon and Jude, by his commission, I set out

He repents and

for the abbey. Abbot Baldwin benignly received me, abandons his

J f claim,

and by his leave the sick bishop came with his
retinue to the abbey. And first the abbot admonished
him to reflect if he had given any offence to God
or St. Edmund, for he should get forgiveness of his
sins before thinking of the application of other
remedies. In chapter, therefore, which was then held
in the vestiary of the monastery, in the presence of
the elder brethren and of the royal barons, Hugh
de Montfort, Roger Bigot, Eichard, son of Count
Gislebert, Turold of Lincoln, l Alvered the Spaniard
and others, the prelate declared the cause of his
misfortune, confessed his sin and anathematized his
conduct and all who counselled it. He then advanced
with sighs and groans to the great altar, laid thereon
the crozier, which he had caused to be brought from
Thetford, and, prostrate on the steps of the altar,
begged pardon of God and St. Edmund. The abbot
and monks recited over him the seven penitential
psalms and absolved him." After these spiritual
remedies the abbot applied those temporal medicines
in the preparation of which he was so skilled. "By

T And receives

frequent fomentations, cauteries and collyriums, back MS sight

» ' and health.

supplemented by the prayers of the monks to God
1 For Turold of Lincoln see Lingard, vol. i. p. 235, edit. 1854.

282 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

and his martyr Edmund, I saw the bishop regaining
his health, and at last only a slight obscurity re-
mained on the pupil of one eye for a sign of his
audacity. So that on the martyr's feast he preached
the panegyric." 1

Afterwards, persuaded by evil counsellors, Herfast
But afterwards renewed his claim, but when Archbishop Lanfranc

renewing his . .

his claim, came down to enquire into it, the aged Abbot ^Elfwm
gave testimony to the exemptions granted by King
Canute and Bishop Ailwin and at the same time
was able to corroborate the story of the burning of
the house of his father, Eadbright, on occasion of his
refusing Ailwin and St. Edmund the shelter of a roof, —
a warning to all to take care how they treat St. Edmund
and his servants. But in spite of evidence to the
contrary the bishop stubbornly persevered. Abbot
Baldwin refuted all his assertions in a great court
of enquiry convened for the purpose in 1181. It
was all of no use. At last, in a regular trial held
by the king's order, judgment was given for the
abbot. The bishop refused to submit and was there-
He ends his life upon forced to give up ring and crozier, which
amounted to his practical deposition. He returned
to his diocese to end his days, a disgraced and dis-
appointed man. 2
The punishment Akin to these chastisements of the invaders of

of the irreverent. ,, , , . ., ,

the royal martyrs privileges and possessions are
those inflicted on the irreverent. The impetuous
youth Count Leofstan was struck with madness for
looking profanely on the saint's face ; a presumptuous
Dane became blind in St. Gregory's church in London;
Abbot Leofstan for disrespectfully handling the holy
body suffered a contraction of the hands to the day

1 Besides Herman, see " Regist. Rub.," Collect. Buriens.,
p. 330.

2 Compare the history of Bishop Bateman, p. 262.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 283

of his death ; Tolinus and his associates died pre-
maturely for rashly opening the coffin and touching
the martyr's limbs ; Herman the monk fell sick and
died after carelessly exhibiting the martyr's garments.

The case of Osgod-Clapa is a further illustration The story of

Osgod-Clapa,

of irreverent conduct towards the saint and its who is chastised

for his pride,

penalty. It occurred early one summer when St. A-D- 1oi4.
Edward the Confessor was on a visit to the abbey.
The most conspicuous figure in the royal train both
by his haughty bearing and gorgeous dress was
Osgod-Clapa, the master of the horse. l On the
" Finding of the Holy Cross," which that year
fell on a Sunday, Osgod, decked out in barbaric
finery, with golden bracelets on both arms and a
gilded axe flung over his shoulder, indevoutly entered
the martyr's church. The bystanders cried out to
him to lay aside his axe at the door, but he took
no heed and insolently passed on through the choir
to the very Holy of Holies ! There he began to
unfasten his axe, not from reverence, but to lean
on it, while he considered what to do next, when
the mighty hand of the saint struck him with mad-
ness and dashed him against the wall of the basilica
as one possessed. The people, hearing an uproar,
crowded to the spot to see this man, " sseculo famosissi-
mus, sed rebus martyris infestissimus" — famous in the
eyes of the world, but abominable 2 to St. Edmund, —
humiliated in the sight of all. King Edward and

1 The Worcester Chronicle calls him " Stallere," or master
of the horse. The sudden death of Hardacnut occurred at the
feast given by Osgod after the marriage of his daughter Gytha to
the Danish chieftain Tovi, surnamed the Proud (see Florence of
Worcester, A. D. 1042). Osgod was a benefactor of the monastery of
Waltham. In reputation and power, says Samson, he was next to
the king. He was outlawed in 1046, but returned to England and
died according to the Saxon Chronicle in 1054.

2 "Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord." — Prov.
vi. 5.

284

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

He is cured and the monks assembled with him in chapter heard the

repents,

uproar, and on learning its cause made their way
to the church. There the king turned to Abbot
Leofstan and said, " Father, it is your duty with
your monks to supplicate the saint to restore this
unfortunate man, so that, corrected by this punish-
ment, he may confess his sins and amend his life."
Thereupon the monks commenced to recite the psalms
and litanies, and the abbot read the exorcisms and
sprinkled the maniac with holy water: but with no effect.
Thereupon Ailwin, the saint's "chamberlain," recom-
mended that he should be brought to the martyr's
tomb. There the brethren, vested in white albs,
again chant the seven psalms and the litanies over
him ; and the Dane, coming to himself, acknowledged
his profanity and in his fervour embraced the shrine.
" The king and the crowd glorified God, who is wonder-
ful in His saints and through them works wonderful
But ins hands things." Osgod repented and corrected his life, but

remain . .

withered. his hands remained withered as a perpetual reminder
that God will not permit any irreverence towards
His champion Edmund — Athleta Edmundus.

A summary. The Bodleian compilation gives the above and several

additional " miracles " of the same character, l showing

1 Thus fol. 633: "De muliere liberata et vicecomite punito.
De quodam Leofstano punito, &c. Qualiter Theodredus epc. fecit
suspend! latrones,"&c. ; fol. 634 : "De Daco crecitate punito, " &c. ;
fol. 636: " De interfectione regis Swani per sctum Edm.;" fol.
640 : " Qnaliter Osgothi Daci superbia punitasit ; " fol. 643 : " De
ultione facta in Erfastum epc. per sanctum Edmundum;" fol.
645 : " De quodam milite demoniaco rapiente quoddam manerium
de Scto Edm. ; " fol. 646 : " De ultione facta in pervasores rerum
suarum;" fol. 650: " De incorruptione Scl Edm. et de ultione
facta in Tolinum monachum palpantem et videntem corpus Scl
Edm. incorruptum ; " fol. 651 : "De ultione facta in Hermanum
monachum explicantem camisiam Scl Edm. et ostendentem populo
ad osculandum ;" fol. 653: "De ultione facta in latronem rapien-
tem de feretro Sci Edm.;" fol. 654: "De ultione sumpta in

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYH. 285

that kings like Sweyn and Edward L, petty thieves
and great barons, soldiers and civilians, judges and
royal justiciaries were punished without distinction for
sacrilegious attempts against St. Edmund's church,
so that all classes feared to wrongfully attack its
privileges and possessions, or to treat with irreverence
the martyr and his servants.

The punishments inflicted on evil-doers are more continuity or

the miracles.

than counterbalanced by the graces and blessings
which the royal saint gained for devout suppliants.
Scattered over a period of a thousand years, these
favours have continued to the present day and may
be said to be countless. The records of some hundreds
still exist, having survived the sixteenth century wreck
of the monastic libraries and their invaluable treasures.
The Wainflete Register brings the miracles down to

o o

1374-75. Lydgate recounts one as happening on
April 20, 1441. The archives of Toulouse chronicle
the cessation of the plague and the cure of the
fever-stricken in 1631, while at St. Edmund's Wells
at Hunstanton an extraordinary if not miraculous cure
in 1864 rewarded the faith of a young girl who
bathed there. The miracles of which the details exist
are, however, few compared with the period over
which they extend, and of these few only the following
selections in addition to those related in the body of
the work will be given to illustrate their general
characteristics.

Eustachium filium Regis Stephani, &c. J)e 'ultione sunipta in
Henricura de Essexia. De ultione snnipta in Willielmum de
Curzun ; " fol. 661 : " De ultione facta pro festo Scl Edm. non
observato;" fol. 663: " De ultione facta super quendam praedi-
torem rapientem pavonem de dominio Scl Edm. ; " fol. 667 : " De
quodam blaspheme punito ; " fol. 668: " Quomodo S. Edm.
terruit comitem Lincolnie, &c. ;" fol. 669: "De ultione facta
super Dominum Johannem de Bello monte, militem. De ultione
facta super Willielrnum de Gillingham justiciarium regis."

286

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The glory of
St. Edmund
attested by
miracles
wrought at
his tomb.

A dumb girl
cured about
A.D. 1095.

The blind son
Knight Yvo,
A.D. 1088,

The cures wrought under the very shadow of the
shrine naturally hold the first rank. Within the holy
and mellowed light which the ever burning tapers for
seven hundred years shed around that hallowed
sepulchre, the crippled and maimed left their
crutches, the blind received their sight, the dumb
learned to speak, the sick recovered health, the dead
were restored to life. Wherever St. Edmund's body
went, its miraculous power followed it. When Ailwin
entered London, nineteen cures took place. They were
of daily occurrence in St. Gregory's church, and the
cure of the Lord of Stapleford is only one of many
which happened on the way back to Beodricsworth.
Once the holy body was in its own church, the guar-
dians of the shrine could commit to writing the circum-
stantial details which made such miracles a picture
of the times. They could describe for instance the
dumb woman, ^Elfgeth of Winchester, who. in the
time of Abbot Leofstan, received the gift of speech,
and would never afterwards leave St. Edmund's shrine,
but spent her life cleaning the church and tending the
altars.

In the same manner through the monk Tolinus,
a " vir bonus et religiosus," who ascertained the facts,
they could chronicle the cure of a poor girl, the
servant of a lady in Essex, who had been dumb
for three years. Her mistress brought her at last
on a pilgrimage to the shrine, and, while praying
there, the girl suddenly exclaimed : " My lady ! my
lady ! behold I can speak." This cure took place on
the eve of the feast of the Seven Martyrs.
of Edmund, the son of Yvo, one of the knights of
William Eufus, had been struck with blindness for
using profane language, it appears, regarding the
saint. " Verrucse concrete, rufae atque pillosae," — red
warty substances covered with hair had strangely

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 28?

grown about the eyes. Before starting for the Scotch
war, Yvo ordered his son to be taken to the saint's
shrine. For fifteen days the boy tarried at the church
of Binneham with the monk Herman, l whose acolyte
and scholar he was. Then in spite of the boy's un- In spite of the

monk Herman,

willingness and his tutor's protest the uncle and step- takenVo'tife
mother took him to St. Edmund's shrine, where they shnne>
arrived on the eve of the martyr's feast. As they
keep watch near the holy body, the boy falls asleep,
and in that sweet sleep, before the bells for matins
chime, the heavenly power of St. Edmund heals
him, by mercifully drawing from his eyes the blinding
excrescence, and on waking he sees the lights around And receives his
the shi'ine. The news of the miracle soon spread, and
after the gospel of the high mass a sermon was
preached, and thanksgiving made to God and St.
Edmund by the multitude with the boy standing in
their midst.

On the Nativity of the ever glorious Virgin, William Adnidofthree
of Colchester's little girl was similarly cured. On cured of wind-

0 ness, A. D. 1088.

the eve of the festival her father sent the child, who
had been blind for five weeks, in charge of its nurse,
to St. Edmund, and the next day it recovered its
sight. After the solemn mass the monks sang the
"Te Deum" with the child standing before the altar.

On the feast of St. John the Baptist in the year of The cure of a

, . lame gif'i A-D-

Abbot Baldwin s translation a poor lame girl on 1095.
crutches came to the saint with her relations, and she
left her crutches with him for a testimony of her cure.

On the martyr's festival the same year a blind girl A wind girl

. i • T i i j "amed Lyeveva

named Lyeveva received her sight, which she had has her sight

restored.

lost a year before by an accident. Her relatives and
fellow-townsmen came with her on pilgrimage. " We
saw her prostrate in the new presbytery on the eve

1 A different personage from Archdeacon Herman, who relates
the incident after hearing the evidence of his repentant namesake.

288 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

of the feast, when at the ' Magnificat ' we proceeded
with our venerable Abbot Baldwin to incense the
Holy of Holies." She spent the night in prayer, and
the evening of the feast during vespers she regained
her sight. She assisted at high mass the next day,
and after a sermon the " Te Deum " was sung.
A woman who Another woman from Winchester, who had been

had been blind

thirty-two years thirty-two years blind, hearing of the glorious series

is cured. J J

of miracles at St. Edmund's Bury, begged her daughter
to lead her thither. After keeping vigil, she was, next
morning, between matins and lauds, blessed with
sight.

A priest named Odo had in his service a house-

housekeeper of

odo the priest, keeper, by name Brichtiva, who looked after his
scholars with all the devotion of a mother. After
many years' service she became bedridden through

Bedridden for a contraction of the nerves of both legs. For seven

seven years,

years she lay in this state, till, seized by a sudden
inspiration, she said to her master : " Sir, remember
the long and devoted service of thy handmaid, and in
thy charity grant me this favour. Have me placed
on some vehicle and carried to St. Edmund's basilica,
for surely the gate of mercy which admits all will not
be shut to me if I knock." Accordingly she was
carried to the church, and crept to the altar, to which
she held fast with her hands. It was the vigil of the
on June 23rd Precursor of Christ, at whose nativity, according to
the inspired prophecy, " many shall rejoice." ] While
the alternate choirs sang the " Magnificat " at vespers,
the prior ascended the altar to incense it, when to his
astonishment he saw the woman, whom a little time
Recovers in st. before he had condoled with in her affliction, standing
church?8 erect with a crowd of people round her. The prior,
to ascertain the truth, with a loud voice asked if any
one knew her. Not one or two, but many who knew

' » St. Luke i. 14.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 289

her master, testified to her previous helpless condition. AS many testify.
But Brichtiva ever cherished in her heart the memory
of St. Edmund, and never ceased to praise him to the
end of her days.

In the reign of Henry I. a girl from Clare in Essex, A

is cured, A.D.

born without the use of arms or legs, was brought by 1100-1135.
her relations to the church " pretiosi regis JEdmundi/'
and was restored whole and sound to her parents.
" Eadulf the monk l saw it with his own eyes," writes
the chronicler ; " he who devoutly guarded the royal
tomb — mausoleum regis — for years, and accurately
narrated the wonders which he saw." " Sic operatur
dilectus noster et princeps ^Edmundus, candidus et
rubicundus ; quern et nivea integritas induit virginei
corporis, et rosea circumdat laurea pretiosse passionis. "
— " So worketh our beloved prince Edmund, the fair and
ruddy one ; ivlwse robe is the snoiv-white integrity of
his virginal body, whose crown is the rose-wreath of
his precious passion"

From every part of the country sick of both other miracles
sexes and of every age visited the shrine and received
their health. At one time a girl from Spalding is
healed. At another, a paralytic farmer from Rutland
in the diocese of Lincoln, who in his days of health
was a frequent and devout pilgrim to the martyr's
church, is brought there by his friends and returns
home upright and whole, after giving the animal which
carried him to the monks. Now a monk of Shrewsbury
gets his health. Now an old blind man from Northum-
berland joins a party of pilgrims, and, coming within
sight of the high bell-tower of the abbey-church, kneels
down to pray with the rest ; he thereupon recovers his
sight and leads the pilgrimage into the town. Again,
a certain Matilda belonging to London lays her little
dying son at the foot of the shrine, and he recovers.
1 For the history of this Radulf , see note, p. 302.

290

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Miracles at a
distance from
the shrine.

At Lucca ;
Hereford ;

Canterbury ;
Acre, 1100 ;

Chichester ;

Evesham ;
Shiinpling;

Northampton :

Swineshead ;

From these graphic and touching scenes around
the shrine we turn to others at a distance, in
England or abroad. For instance, at Lucca a rich
man's little boy is cured; at Hereford Eobert of
Haseley, a canon, recovers from a quartan ague.
In another part of the country a soldier and his
wife vow their dying boy to God and St. Edmund,
and he revives and lives. The same happens in the
case of the son of one Henry, a knight of Canterbury,
and also in that of the son of William de Bealver.
A soldier at the siege of Acre during the crusade
of Richard I., afflicted with all the symptoms of
black death, begs the intercession of the glorious
martyr aud suddenly grows better. A cleric at
Chichester, working in the roof of the cathedral,
falls from a height of forty-seven feet to the ground.
He calls upon St. Edmund, whose feast it is, and
receives but little hurt. An Evesham monk, on
seeking the intercession of the martyr, is marvellously
cured of a painful disease. A young man from Shimp-
ling taken in war, tortured and loaded with chains,
on invoking St. Edmund and St. Nicholas is set
free. A miller at Warkton, l unjustly thrown into
the dungeons of Northampton Castle with nineteen
others, cries to St. Edmund ; the shackles fall from
his feet, and, rising up, he makes for the church
of St. Edmund in that town, the four guards, helpless,
allowing him to pass. Similarly the bailiff of Eobert
de Gresley, whom his master had thrown into prison
at Swineshead, with tears and groans implores
St. Edmund and St. Etheldreda to deliver him from
his bonds ; and St. Edmund, appearing to him, sets

] Or Wereketon, a village near Kettering in Northamptonshire.
Queen Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, gave its manor to St.
Edmund's Abbey towards the building of the great church.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYll. 291

him free. Whereupon he makes a pilgrimage to
the shrine to return thanks.

Among the miracles which thus took place outside The waiufleet
the precincts of the martyr's sanctuary, come the ""
seventeen recorded in the Wainfleet register. After
the narration of " How the ruined chapel of Wain-
fleet was repaired by reason of a revelation from
St. Edmund," the chronicler describes among other
incidents the restoration to life of a dead girl and
of two drowned children ; the cure of four cripples
and two blind persons ; several rescues from ship-
wreck, and the release of six pilgrims in Spain from
prison and chains.

Similar miracles were registered in a certain chapel The Lynn
of St. Edmund at Lynn. Special interest centres
round King's Lynn. According to Camden, St.
Edmund landed there before proceeding to Hun-
stanton. No doubt its connection with the gentle
and saintly king dates from an early period, as
its name, its ancient and venerable chapel to his
memory, and the miracles which took place there,
testify. In this sanctuary, among other favours granted
through the intercession of St. Edmund, it is averred
that three dead men were raised to life, and several
blind and dumb people, as well as cripples, were cured.

Instances of the protection afforded to St. Edmund's on the high seas
suppliants on the high seas are strikingly numerous protects his

. suppliants.

in all the lists of miracles. They were of the utmost
interest to seafaring Englishmen generally, and
especially to the men of Norfolk and Suffolk with
their long sea-board. Hence the careful registry
of them in the monastic books. Herman's Book
of Miracles breaks off abruptly in the midst of a
narrative of this kind, in which he describes some
pilgrims returning by sea from Rome on the Friday Some P'^1''1"*

J returning by sea

before the Rogation days, May 15, 1095. Samson I™1*™8'

292 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

finishes the story. The ship had sixty-four souls
on board and a cargo of precious objects from the

sXwredcakgerofEternal Cit7- Iu mid-ocean the vessel sprang a
leak, and the hold quickly filled with water, which
rose higher and higher in spite of energetic and
continuous pumping. In despair sailors and passengers
prepared for death. Then Wulfward, the priest,
and Robert, both of St. Edmund's, remembering the
great power of their patron, asking for silence, thus
addressed their comrades : " Men, brethren ! Why
give way to despair ? Who does not know our St.
Edmund ? The fame of his virtues extends over
land and sea. Who has ever sought protection under

They invoke his wings and been repulsed ? Let us each and

St. Edmund, ° r

all call upon him in this hour of danger after first
making an offering for his shrine." The advice
was taken. Then from the silent ocean the cry
went up to heaven : " Sancte ^Edmunde, libera nos."
To the joy and astonishment of all, the water in
the hold suddenly began to subside, and the sails
began to fill with wind ; and " felix carina feliciter
And are saved. ceP^ velificare," — the ship, happily saved from de-
struction, began once more to merrily plough the
billows. On reaching port, Wulfward and Robert,
commissioned by their fellow-passengers, carried
the offering to St. Edmund's monastery, and there
related the history of their marvellous preservation.
The narrative of Lambert, abbot of St. Nicholas,' Angers, used
Angevin abbot, i to relate how on one of his many visits to the
tomb of the renowned king and martyr the com-
munity asked him the reason of his singular devotion
to St. Edmund, and he answered them : " Beloved
brethren, St. Edmund king and martyr is deservedly
considered our father as well as patron of England*
as the following story will testify:
1 " Relatio Domni Lambert! Abbatis."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 29o

" One winter, although we had most pressing business
to transact, the intense cold and the tempestuous
sea delayed us several days at Barfleur. Most who, being

wind-bound at

earnestly we prayed to many saints, not forgetting Bai-neur,
our own St. Nicholas. One afternoon, as we spoke
of the merits and powers of different saints, Natalis,
an old monk of ours, who had honourably worn the
religious habit for well nigh fifty years, asked if
we would take his advice in order to get a secure
and speedy voyage. We eagerly professed our willing-
ness to do so. ' Promise,' he said, ' to the glorious and

Made a vow to

blessed Edmund, the martyr-king of the English, that, st- Edmund>
your request granted, you will go and return thanks
in his church and in future regard him as his own
household does.' l To our criticisms on this he
answered : To pray to St. Edmund, known to be so
powerful in England, would spread his glory in Europe,
and be no disparagement to our patron, St. Nicholas,
whom all the world invokes in danger and distress.
Thereupon we earnestly besought St. Edmund,
and, confidently embarking that evening, reached And afterward3
Southampton harbour at nine o'clock next day, having port.yre
crossed the channel in the incredible space of ten
hours. Not unmindful of our promise, we came to
blessed Edmund's church to fulfil our vows. This
was the beginning of our love and devotion towards
the most holy Edmund."

While Abbot Lambert told his story, three men Three pilgrims

in the church

from London, Hervey, Yvo, and another, were pay ing j^.8 similar
their devotions at the shrine. They afterwards des-
cribed how, being wind-bound on a voyage to St.
Gilles, 2 they implored the martyr's help, and a
pleasant breeze quickly brought them to port. The

1 "Familia."

2 St. Gilles, on the Little Rhone below Aries. Its abbey-church
even in its present ruin is a work of great splendour.

294 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

chronicler, admiring their faith, promised to put
their tale on record, and so it reaches us.

Three mariners Radulph the monk, while assiduously performing
shTppinfaUhe his duties at the shrine, saw three other men

shrine in • IP i t • •

prostrate before it and fervently kissing the very
stones on which it rested. Rising from their prayers,
Edmtuid°sami ^nev ^°^ n^m now their ship was nearly foundering
shipwreck. in a violent storm which lasted three days, till
they all cried to St. Edmund, " 0 sancte rex et
martyr ^Edmunde ! 0 potens et benigne princeps,
nobis auxilium tuse pietatis porrige ! insignis tri-
umphator ^Edmunde ! "- — " 0 holy king and martyr Ed-
mund ! 0 mighty and benignant prince, stretch forth
thy kind helping hand ! 0 triumphant Edmund ! "
And behold the storm abated, and they reached port
in safety.
A. cleric from ^ cleric from Lichfield, coming to return thanks

Lichfield tells

sa°v«i hiSlfZ\d to St Edmund, declared to the monks in chapter
that, on his going to Jerusalem, the ship in which
he sailed was wrecked in a great storm. Struggling
for life in the boiling sea, he invoked St. Edmund,
and, as it is recorded of the blessed confessor St.
Nicholas that he is present to sailors who call upon
him, so the glorious martyr Edmund came to him, and,
seizing him by the hair, brought him to land. With
grateful tears the cleric asked his rescuer's name.
" I am Edmund, whose help you implored," answered
the vision and disappeared.

other instances On another occasion some Dunwich fishermen

of a similar kind.

came to hang up an anchor of wax before the
shrine in thanksgiving to St. Edmund, whom they
had invoked in a storm. Again, three men cast on
a sand-bank in a wreck were marvellously saved
after invoking the royal martyr. So also were a
Norfolk man and his wife.

Conspicuous among these and many other instances

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 295

of St. Edmund's protection of the shipwrecked and The story of
drowning is the case of Henry I. In 1132 Henry,
after his interview with Pope Innocent II., left
Chartres for England. On the passage a violent
storm arose, which threatened the utter destruction
of vessel and crew. The king, fearing with reason
that it was a visitation of God upon him, made
solemn vows of reformation and amendment, at the
same time calling upon St. Edmund to help him.
On the ship's arriving safe in port, Henry set out
on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to St. Edmund's
shrine.

Passing to another class of favours, we find St. yt. Edmund the
Edmund invoked by our forefathers, very much as EngUmd.ny°
St. Antony of Padua is to-day, for things that are
lost. For instance, Abbot Baldwin's messenger,
Norman, when his luggage had been stolen at Barfleur,
recovered it in a surprising manner after praying
to St. Edmund. The martyr restored to Warner,
abbot of Rebaix, a relic which he had lost. Some
horses taken away from the monastery were
miraculously brought back, an incident which the
monks carved over the abbot's stall in the choir
of the great church, giving its history underneath
in four lines of verse. l

Again one 20th of November, the festival of St. Deorman, a
Edmund, Deorman, a rich London merchant, who merchant,
exposed his silks and spices in the town for sale,
went into the basilica to pray at the shrine. While
prostrate there, a woman cut away the bag which is robbed at the
contained his money and jewels, so that when he
prepared to make his offering he found nothing to
give. Then, turning to the saint, he expostulated.
" I came, holy prince," he said, " into your house
to pray ; and why have you allowed impious hands
1 Bodl. MS. 240 f. 667.

296 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

to rob me ? Surely my possessions ought to be

ittingewmfthe secure here ! " Going out at the church-door, he

eo^eVhis16' unawares put his hands on a woman in the crowd,

who at once fell on her knees, and, handing back

his bag and its untouched contents, begged him not

to expose her. Letting the thief go free, he re-entered

the church to give thanks to God and St. Edmund,

Afterwards he became a monk and lived holily many

years in the monastery.

TWO other Again, a knight of Copeland beyond York, who

owned farms in East Anglia, sent his servant to
collect the rents. The servant lost the money, but
after invoking St. Edmund found it again. Some
fishermen, having lost their nets, prayed to St. Edmund
and they miraculously recovered them.

spiritual graces. These temporal favours are eclipsed by the spiritual
graces which the royal martyr dispensed with lavish
hand. Often he gave them as well as corporal
health, as in the case of William de Curzun, Bishop
Herfast and others, but still more frequently by
themselves. A wicked squire, moved by the healing
of a rich lady whom he had accompanied to St.
Edmund's church, confessed his sins and received
from the martyr health of soul and body. A wealthy
knight, in despair of salvation by reason of a vice
which had enslaved him, resorted to St. Edmund,
prayed before the shrine, and, confessing his guilt,
was freed from temptation. A licentious ecclesiastic
from the diocese of Chichester was likewise converted
through the invocation of St. Edmund.

visions of the Both spiritual and temporal graces were sometimes
mt> accompanied by a vision of the saint. In their

invocations our ancestors coupled St. Edmund with
St. Nicholas, St. Etheldreda, or St. Thomas of Canter-
in company bury, and on two occasions, at least, the royal

with St. Thomas • i , •> , i i .

of canterbury, martyr is related to have appeared in company

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 297

witli St. Thomas : once after the battle of Fornham
in the reign of Henry II., when the two martyrs
liberated some prisoners of war ; and again to a
certain Earl Simon, their devout client, to console
him for the death of an only son, whom they
pointed out to him in heaven. l

These apparitions show the sympathy which Their meaning,
medieval writers believed the saint to have with
those on earth in sorrow and difficulty. Unbelievers
may consider them dreams only ; yet they prove
what a reality the martyr's power and presence
were in the minds of the people. And while re-
vealing our ancestors' deep sense of St. Edmund's
solicitude for their welfare, 2 they throw a special
heavenly and supernatural light over the history
of many of the royal martyr's devoted servants, like
Ailwin and Abbot Samson.

The most beautiful and touching scenes are por- The vision of st.

i • L- -ii i.i • • mi Edmund,

trayed in connection with these visions. The cure
of the poor crippled woman who, in the reign of
the Confessor, sat begging at the porch of the great
church, is a case in point. Her legs hung withered
and useless on her body. Sitting on a little stool
and with smaller stools in her hands, she moved
about with great exertion, and thus often approached
the shrine asking for her cure. Night and day
she remained in the church, for, like the infirm
man at the pool at Bethsaida, she had no one to
take care of her. At eventide, when others went

1 Bodl. 2401.663.

2 E.g. St. Edmund appears to a peasant of Exming, a village on
the Suffolk border of Cambridgeshire, and reveals his wish to see
a road made for the benefit of pilgrims from St. Ethelreda's, Ely,
to St. Edmund's Bury ; and the monks constructed Soham cause-
way in consequence (Bodl. 240 f. 662). " Hajc niagna et mirabilia
dignatus est in parvis facere Maximus in S. Edmundi favorem, ut
ostendat qualis gratife sit apud eum etiam in magnis. "

298

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

away, she, poor and neglected, slept inside the western

tiiefciieciedeof ^oor' ^ne n%^lt a pi°us matron of Essex named
woman. ^Ifweve, keeping vigil at the shrine, praying out

the candle which she held in her hand, saw a
man venerable of countenance and clothed in dazzling
and shining robes issue from the precincts of the
shrine, and glide through the lines of stalls in
the choir and down the long nave, his bright-
ness throwing the shadows of the lines of pillars
into the aisles. Arriving at the western doors, the
vision paused, benignly regarded the sleeping cripple,
as SS. Peter and John did the beggar at the Beautiful
Gate of the Temple, and, standing, signed the sleeping
woman with the sign of the cross from head to
foot. Then the heavenly visitor returned whence he
came, shining like the sun in the darkness. But
by that saving sign he had restored to the crippled
woman the nerves and members lost for so many
years. ^Elfweve looked on in ecstasy. The infirm
woman, waking up, made the vast and silent church
echo with her cries. She skipped and danced and
and wept, praising God. Meanwhile the " faithful
monk," Bmnstan, the keeper of the shrine, who
slept in the church, thinking that robbers had
broken in, ran to the cortina,1 only to find its
gates locked as he left them, and the woman
whom he had seen a cripple praising God and
St. Edmund. Just then the bells rang to assem-
ble the monks for matins. After matins the miracle
became public. Brother Brunstan gave evidence>
as did the matron ^Elfweve and the crippled
woman. So the bells were rung, and the alternate
choirs sang lauds to Him " who is wonderful in His
saints, and renders them wonderful on earth, that
all may know how great glory they enjoy in heaven."
1 A railing round the shrine.

The matron
jElfweve from
Essex

And the monk
Brunstan con-
firm it.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 299

St. Edmund, luminous in the darkness, traversing
the long nave, healing the crippled beggar lying in
poverty and loneliness at the church-porch — the sleeping
keeper — the watching matron — and, matins over, the
monks crowding round the cured woman — the bells
ringing and the thanksgiving sung — behold a picture
earthly yet unearthly !

One of these visions, glimpses of heaven, accom-

Asketil

panied the cure of the Frenchman William, son of consumed wi
Asketil, of the county of Hereford. Fever and racking
pains had already deprived him of the use of his
limbs, when he heard of the fame of St. Edmund
and asked to be carried to his tomb. There he made
his offering and prayed to the saint for a cure.
When his attendants carried him on his litter from
the church back to the hospice, they momentarily
expected him to breathe his last. A thousand fevers
seemed to consume him, his eyes stood fixed and
staring as if he was in the last agony.

About mid-day the bystanders heard him conversing is cured in a

vision of the

with some one. As he related afterwards, he spoke to a saint.
man of medium stature, in the bloom of youth, very
noble in appearance and of kingly dignity and attire,
who stood at his side and, touching him with a rod,
asked why he lay there. The sick man answered,
" Consumed with fever and loaded with infirmity,
I am seeking a cure from St. Edmund." His attendants
thought him delirious. The heavenly visitor asked,
" Do you believe that he can give what you ask ? "
" Without doubt, I believe," the dying man replied.
" Arise then safe and sound," the vision commanded,
" and rejoicing, mount your horse and return home."
The sick man enquired who thus, like to our Saviour
in the gospel, bade him arise and walk. " I am
Edmund, the servant of Jesus Christ," the saint
replied. " Get up, and hastening home with your

300

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The story of
Wulinar,

Who sees a
vision of the
saint,

servants, tell what great things the Almighty has
done for you." Those around during all this time
heard but saw nothing. The sick man, at once rising
up, ate and drank at a banquet with his friends,
and after making a suitable thank-offering in the
church, returned home, proclaiming the name and
power of St. Edmund in town and country, affirming
that he had seen him and spoken with him face
to face.

A similar and not less graphic incident, " which,"
says Herman, " we know to be true, because it
came under our own observation," is told of Wulinar,
an honest burgess of the town, who after a pilgrimage
to Eome placed an offering on the " marble and cry-
stal altar " in thanksgiving for a safe return. Leaving
the church one Sunday evening, Wulmar fell down
in a fit and was carried home insensible. For four
days he lay paralysed and helpless. On Friday his
friends summoned Goding the parish-priest, who,
" coming with his scholars," administered the Viaticum.
All that day and the three following, the sick man
lay with eyes closed and limbs cold and stiff, as though
dead, except for his breathing. The next day, Tuesday,
was a festival — the translation of blessed Edmund
by Abbot Leofstan, — and our protector chose that
day to manifest his power. After midnight, as the
bells chimed for the matins of the feast, the dying
man fell into a sweet sleep, in which he saw as
though with his real eyes the door of his room open
and a bright cloud like a dove enter, which,
approaching, grew larger as he gazed, till the vision
of a man of fair and dazzling form stood beside
him. The vision touched his eyes as if to open them,
saying, " Fear nothing ; you shall know the great mercy
of God. Now you are whole, go to the festival in
the church and give thanks to your Saviour." " But

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 301

who art them ? " asked the sick man. " I am Edmund,
the servant of the Eternal King," answered the vision,
gradually fading away as it had come. Wulmar, to
the amazement of his attendants, arose at once, clothed

And recovers

himself and walked to church, where he offered to llis health,
the martyr four crystals which he had brought
from Rome, as a perpetual memorial of his vision
and cure. Then, calling Brother Tolinus, he told
him all. Abbot Baldwin, informed of the incident,
summoned the priests Siward and Goding and many
others, and took their evidence and the oath of the
cured man. When the miracle could not be gain-
said, assembling the people in the church, the abbot
caused a sermon to be preached, and, with the pealing
of the bells, the " Te Deum " to be sung.

Of these visions of mercy not the least striking Kanuir, a

0 Norman knight

are those in which St. Edmund is said to have con-
verted sinners and inspired them to dedicate their
lives to God. The conversion of Eanulf is a case
in point. Eanulf, " viUe religiose monachus," the
monk of religious life, the assiduous keeper of the
shrine for many years, the witness and narrator of
miracles, had been a courtier of the Conqueror's, a
knight " militari perversus in opere," the comrade
of Chichester. l Struck down by fever in one of his
foraging expeditions, he lay tossing on his bed of
sickness for eight days, unable to eat, drink or sleep.

" On the eighth day God deigned to visit him Seeg st
through his martyr, who desired to show him mercy, Et
and whom the sick man had ever remembered."
For, falling asleep, he dreamt of St. Edmund, saw
the saint on horseback in glittering armour pursuing
him, felt his lance strike him in the back and throw

1 Probably liobert, the unworthy son of the noble Roger de
Montgomeri, Earl of Chichester and Shrewsbury, who died in 1094.
(See Ordericus Vit., v. 14.)

302 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

him prostrate from his horse into a hedged enclosure
full of flowers, and saw him standing over him threaten-
ing death. He pitifully begged for mercy and life.
Edmund kindly laid his open right hand upon the
soldier's head, and making the sign of the cross

who cures him, upon him, answered, " If you would but do what
will bring them to you, you can be free." In answer
to the knight's request Edmund revealed his name and
disappeared. When the sick man awoke, lie found
himself well, and in the morning explained his
miraculous cure to the ecclesiastics of the court, to
Samson, 1 and to others who knew of his sickness.
Unable to throw off the impression which that dream

And he becomes nRd made, Knight Ranulf asked for the tonsure, and
shortly after took the religious habit in St. Edmund's
abbey. 2 He had been a " literatus " and had aban-
doned the schools for a military life. ]S"ow we see
him a priest and monk, " Deum laudans in martyrem

1 Not necessarily Abbot Samson.

- It is not clear whether the monk Ranulf is the same as
Radulph of whom the following is related in Bodl. 240 f. 663 :

' ' The Vision of the Monk Radulph. — We have seen'a religious man
named Radulph, a monk of St. Edmund's, who fell sick, after he
had persevered from youth to old ago in the religious life, and by
the command of Abbot Hugh had built the altars of St. Thomas the
Martyr, St. Botulph, and St. Jurminus, and collected the relics of
St. Thomas and of as many others as possible.in gold and jewelled
shrines. One Sunday night, when his sickness had become
very grave, he saw approach him in most sweet vision our
Lord Jesus Christ, Edmund also with Thomas, and St. Botulph
with St. Jurminus and St. Nicholas. They spoke to him in melli-
fluous colloquy, saying : ' Adorn the chamber of thy heart, and
come to us ; is there aught beyond ? You shall come to rest and
eternal glory.' The holy vision passed ; he asked for his confessor
to be summoned and related all to him. Then he made his con-
fession, and when he had received the body of the Lord, com-
mending his soul to God, to Blessed Mary and St. Edmund, and
,to the others mentioned above, and to all the saints, he fell asleep
in peace."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAHTYK. 303

Eadmundum, et ipsum martyrem pretiosum venerans
in Omnipotentem Deum," — " praising God in His
martyr Edmund and venerating the precious martyr
himself in Almighty God."

The apparition of Edmund which changed " the The story of
once proud Henry Earl of Essex " into " the tonsured, enry°
mournful, penitent monk " of Reading Abbey, has
been described by Carlyle with more than his usual
force and beauty of language. Abbot Samson, being
on a visit to Reading, heard the particulars from
Henry's own mouth and charged one of his attendant
monks to commit it to writing. Hence it found its
way as an episode into a copy of Jocelin's Chronicle
and gets commented upon in the pages of " Past
and Present."

Henry Earl of Essex, standard-bearer of England, His character,
held high rank among the barons of Henry II.
and filled important offices in the state during that
monarch's reign. Haughty and imperious, however,
he tho.ught little of the laws of right and justice.
He threw Gilbert of Cereville into prison and with
chains and torments gradually wore out his life,
although his only crime was that of the innocent
Joseph. He showed no reverence for St. Edmund,
as all others did who respected the " heavenly in man."
While the people of the eastern counties endowed
King Edmund the martyr's resting-place with rich
gifts, Henry by violence defrauded it of five solidi Hc ,,efrauda
yearly and converted the said sum to his own uses. st< E<lmund's :
Again for his own profit he questioned the right of
St. Edmund's court to try a certain cause, saying
that it belonged to his in Lailand Hundred, and
thus " involved us in travellings and innumerable
expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a
long period." But all this time he did but weave
his own evil destiny. For in the year 1157, attending

304 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

King Henry in the Welsh wars as hereditary standard-
bearer, when the enemy made a sudden attack on
the English in the difficult pass of Coleshill, he
dropped the standard and shrieked out that the
king was slain and all was lost. The utmost con-
fusion ensued, and destruction threatened king and
army, till the brave Count Roger of Clare came dashing
up with his men, and, raising the royal standard
from the ground, rallied the fugitives and drove
back the Welshmen.1 Once they were home again,
treachef-ydbylth ^ie incident was not forgotten, and Earl Eobert
Montfort. de Montfort, the standard-bearer's kinsman and match
in strength, rising up in the assembly of the great
barons, declared him unfit for standard-bearer and
branded him traitor and coward.
A duel in conse- Henry answers in a recriminatory speech. A chal-

quenceona

Thames Eyot lenge is offered and accepted, and a duel appointed

near Reading,

A.D. 1163. t0 fog fought on an island of the Thames near Eeading,
within a short distance of the abbey. King, peers
and a great multitude of people on scaffoldings and
hillocks assemble to see the issue. " And it came
to pass," writes the scribe, "while Robert thundered
on him with hard and frequent strokes, and a bold
beginning promised the fruit of victory, Henry,
fainting a little, looked around ; and lo ! on the
confines of river and land he discerned, as if hovering
in the air, the glorious king and martyr in shining
armour, and with austere countenance nodding his
head towards him in an angry and threatening manner.
At St. Edmund's side stood another knight, Gilbert
de Cereville, in armour less splendid, in stature
smaller, but casting indignant and revengeful looks
at him. Startled and trembling, he saw them and
that old remembered crime brings new shame. And

1 SeeGervase, Rolls Series, i. 165 ; Diceto, " Ymag Hist., "Rolls
Series, i. p. 310.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 305

now wholly desperate, instead of using his reason

in skilled defence he begins a wild and blind

attack. But while he struck fiercely, he was more

fiercely struck, and while he fought manfully, he

was more manfully fought ; and so he fell down ST

vanquished and, as it was thought, slain. As he Riding abbey,

lay there for dead, his kinsmen, magnates of England,

besought the king that the monks of Reading might

have leave to bury him. However, he proved not

to be dead, and got well again among them, and,

restored to health, he strove in the regular habit to

wipe out the stain of his former life, and to redeem

the long week of his dissolute history by at least an

edifying sabbath, cultivating virtue into the fruit of ^^ a monk.

eternal felicity.'

Thus St. Edmund was believed to influence the
minds and hearts of men, whether by real visions
" on the rim of the horizon," or by silent presence
in the tomb, teaching generations of Englishmen to
be just and reverent, and reminding them of the
other world to which lie and they belonged.

St. Abbo supplies the final comment on these st.

commentary on

scenes so old yet so actual, and in their meaning so the miracles.
beautiful, great and true, which are now left to the
scepticism or faith of moderns. " Desirous of being
brief," writes the saintly abbot, "I pass over many
of the glorious virtues which shine forth from St.
Edmund, lest I offend the over-fastidious by my
lengthiness. Besides I think that what I have related
will be sufficient for the fervour and devotion of
those who after the protection of God desire nothing
so much as the patronage of this great martyr. Of
him it is evident, as it is of other saints reigning
with Christ, that, though his soul is in heavenly
glory, still it is not far distant, either by day or

night, from the body in whose company it merited

306 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYfi,

those joys of blessed immortality which it now
possesses. Until they are joined in the eternal
kingdom, where they shall be forever together, he has
indeed whatever he can have or wish to have, except
only that he desires with unwearied desire that by
the resurrection he may be surrounded with the robe
of flesh. When by the bounteousness of Christ that
shall come to be, then shall the happiness of the
saints be complete."

t>enr£ vi. at St. Edmund's Sbnnc.

( From DOM LYDGATE'S " LIFE AND ACTS OF ST. EDMUND."

Harleian MSS. 2J78.)

307

CHAPTER XI.

Devotion to St. Edmund.

[Au&orities— Most of the authorities referred to at the beginning of previous
chapters illustrate one or other phase of devotion to the great martyr of
England, aud are therefore spoken of when necessary in t:ie body of this
chapter. Several pieces of which no mention has been made before, and
notably the epic by Denis Piramus and the " Vita Sti Edmundi " by William
of Ramsey, are specially noticed. The Bodl. MS. Digby 109, which contains
the ancient office of the royal martyr, is folly described among the
authorities at the beginning of Chapter IV.]

A MAX'S personality is sometimes more vividly felt st Edmund's
iu his absence than in his presence. When the **
changeable and disturbing elements of appearance,
mannerisms and faults have passed away, his genuine
character, power and influence are more fully realized.
Thus great men often exercise more influence over
their followers after death than during life, for their
admirers keep fresh the memory of what attracted
them and forget what repelled them. The personality
of St. Edmund, more markedly than in an ordinary
hero, won the affection and loyalty of all with whom
he came into contact during life, but it stood re-
vealed in all its force and beauty only after his
death. He was indelibly fixed in the minds not
only of his subjects but of future kings and people,
English and Danes, clergy and laity, as the model
of a ruler, a saintly high-souled Christian, an
unflinching champion of the faith, and a valiant
defender of people and country against a national
enemy. This high idea of bis nobleness resulted in
an extraordinary devotion to his memory. Xo sooner

308

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYlt.

inspires the did the people issue from their hiding-places than,

early devotion.

unmindful of their own troubles, they sought with
tears and prayers for the remains of their king, in
order to hury them with deepest reverence and
love. Other leaders who had fallen in conflict with the
Danes had been covered with a simple mound of earth
hastily constructed, and had soon been forgotten. But
the East Anglians could not easily forget their " good
shepherd," their "loving father," their "heavenly
intercessor," so close to the throne of the Lamb.
His grave was sacred, a holy spot, and they erected
to perpetuate their martyr's memory a chapel over it.
Divine Provi- Almighty God in His Providence, in order to

dence kept alive

the devotion, signalize the saintly king's distinctive character and
to glorify the Christian faith, assisted the devotion
of the faithful by special graces and miracles, and
the Church by enrolling the martyr amongst her
saints proclaimed far and wide the grandeur of his
life and deeds.

The consequent outward expressions of enthusiastic
love and admiration for the holy king are scarcely sur-
passed in the annals of the saints of God. Again and
again, bishop and abbot, clergy and people assembled,
with all the ceremony and display that reverence
and affection could suggest, to translate his relics, and
each time to a richer shrine and a more magnificent
basilica. Devout women, like Oswene, elected to
spend their life in attendance at the martyr's tomb
and to minister with motherly care to the incorrupt
body. Faithful guardians, like Ailwin, dedicated their
lives to perform "menial service" at his tomb,
or, like Herman and Eadulph, to solemnly attes-
tate and register the miracles which shed a lustre
on his name. Chroniclers took delight in record-
ing the martyr's exploits and in sounding his
eulogies ; poets selected his deeds for the theme of

Which found
expression

In personal
service ;

In written
eulogies ;

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAHTVK. 309

their verses, and made him the hero of their devout

epics ; liturgists composed in his honour antiphons and

hymns, lessons and prayers for the mass and divine

office. Men of faith, emulous of his service, sought In external

for the religious habit in his monastery, and even w

monks of other abbeys resigned their dignities to

live under the shadow of his shrine. In dis-

tant towns and villages devout clients invoked his

intercession, and from every county a ceaseless stream

of pilgrims came to his tomb to return thanks or to In pllgrimages .

offer homage. The Church inserted his name in her

martyrologies, instituted festivals in his honour and

specially solemnized the day of his martyrdom.

Churches and chapels were dedicated under his

invocation not only in England but throughout in churches and

Christendom. Lastly, the accumulated worship of ages

took a material and tangible form in the magnificent

memorial known as St. Edmund's patrimony, in whose in the building

up of St.

centre lay the incorrupt body of the saint, peacefully

reposing in the golden shrine, which glittered with
jewels, and which was surmounted by the stone canopy
of Baldwin's mighty basilica. Around, the gables and
turrets of the vast pile of monastic buildings
formed a sacred rampart of defence garrisoned by
the Benedictine guardians of the sanctuary. On
all sides clustered the roofs and spires of the town
peopled by the martyr's own subjects, and adorned
with churches and libraries, hospitals and free
schools, while far away beyond extended the wide
possessions which generations of devoted clients,
kings and freemen, nobles and burgesses, had humbly
offered to that saintly form sleeping in their midst.
The devotion of the people was fostered by the T .

•> Literary tributes

literary tribute to the royal martyr, his life written tothe saint-
by various pens, the poems in his honour, the
liturgical hymns, the accounts of his miracles and

310

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

St. Abbo's
tribute.

Other Lives of
the saint.

Lives in the
vernacular.

the translations of his body, the references and
records in monastic chronicles of the details of his
life. Among them all, the Life of the martyr by
St. Abbo holds the chief place, by reason of its
origin and the touching piety of its style. St. Abbo
wrote at the request of St. Dunstau, then arch-
bishop of Canterbury, supplementing the story of
the old armour-bearer, as he had received it from
the archbishop, with the information which he
picked up from the keepers of the shrine when he
visited Beodricsworth ; and he produced a history of
the Judas Machabeus of East Anglia, the Aloysius
of the ninth century, the Sebastian of English legend,
which was transcribed and multiplied until it found
its way into all the important abbeys of Europe.
Herman and Osbert de Clare made it the preface of
their Books of the Miracles of St. Edmund ; Abbots
Leofstan and Baldwin took copies to Italy. In old
illuminated manuscripts it survived the destruction
of much else around it and found its way into the
great modern libraries of Copenhagen, Gotha, Lucca,
Vienna, Paris, London and Oxford. Surius printed
it among his Lives of the Saints, and others followed
his example, so that now all who wish can read it.1
Other monks as devout as Abbo, like the authors
of the Harleian Life2 and the Bodleian compilation,3
made the writing of St. Edmund's Life a labour of
love. Many of these Lives, long since perished,
were much fuller than Abbo's, notably the " Prolixa
Vita" abbreviated in Curteys' Register, and the
" Acts," from which Gaufridus drew his account of
the saint's childhood. Monastic scribes multiplied
copies in the vernacular, so that the people might

1 For a full notice of St. Abbo and his work see Authorities,
Chapter IV.

2 MS. 802 f. 226b. 3 MS. 240. See Authorities, Chapter II.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYll. 311

read them. Five such in the East Anglian dialect
are extant in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge and
the British Museum. The devotion of the people
called too for the history of the Passion of St.
Edmund in their own tongue, and live copies in
East Anglian dialect survive in ancient manuscript
and one in modern print.1

The religious houses of England almost without The homage of

the religious

exception rendered homage to the martyr or the houses.
East by recording his life and deeds in their
annals. William, the monk of Ramsey Abbey, in
the thirteenth century wrote the Life now extant in
the public library of Cambridge.2 He confesses that
he did so from zeal, not because he considered him-
self worthy — " Plus volo quam valeo regis mernorando
triumphos." Westminster, Malmesbury, Croyland,
Durham, Ely, Peterborough, Gloucester, and other
convents great and small, followed his example, for
no chronicler thought his work complete without
the history of the Koyal Edmund.

This universal homage frequently took the form The tribute of

verse.

of verse. A poet of Rufford Abbey conceived the
lines which fixed St. Edmund as a national patron.
Monk William of liamsey adds to his Life of the
saint the two hymns beginning " Stupet caro,
stupet mundus " and " Profitendo fidem solarn," each
of thirty leonine lines. Samson invokes the muse,
" Martyris ut laudes digne narrare," — that he may
worthily speak of the martyr. An unknown poet
sings the elegy, " Salve festa dies toto," found in
the old manuscript Bodl. 832, and Robert of

1 The text of the MS. on the Passion of St. Edmund, Bodl. N. E.
f. 4, has been printed in Mr. Thorpe's "Analecta Anglo-Sax onica,"
pp. 119-126, as an interesting specimen of the dialect of East
Anglia.

2 MS. D. d. ii. if. 125b-136b.

Two epics.

The French
one by Denis
Piramus.

Its prologue.

312 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Gloucester writes in his native tongue the poetical
life, beginning

"Edmund, ye holi holi king, of whom we make great feste,"
and ending

' ' Now God for ye love of Saint Edmund that was so noble a king,
Grant ous ye joy yat he is inne, after cure ending.

Amen."1

which the martyr's scribes multiplied for the people
to read.

With St. Edmund as the hero, the two epics, one
by the courtier Denis Piramus and the other by the
monk Lydgate, surpass all minor poems in depth of
devotion and poetic language. Even the laudatory
and beautiful epithets lavished on the royal martyr
by Herman, Osbert de Clare, and Samson, do not
express more enthusiastically the piety of contem-
poraries.

Denis Piramus, the Erench author of the first
epic, passed the greater part of his life in the court
of Henry III. and composed his poem, he says, to
entertain the king and his nobles with holy thoughts
on a sea-voyage. The poet begins his " Vie S.
Edmund le Eey"2 with an act of sorrow for his
ill-spent life :

' ' Mult ay use, cum pechere,
Ma vie en trop foli manere
E trop ay use ma vie
En peche e en folie."

1 Harl. MS. 2277. Printed for the Philological Society by Mr.
F. J. Furnivallin his volume of " Early English Poems and Lives
of the Saints," Svo, 1862. Five copies of this poet's Life of
St. Edmund are extant.

2 " La Vie de S. Edmund le Rey en vers," MS. Cott. Domit.
A xi. ff. 1-24.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MART YE. 313

He then laments the time spent in making profane
rhymes, of which he now expresses his repentance,
and resolves to use his talents for a nobler end.
" Jes ay noun Denis Piramus " — " I am named Denis
Piramus,"1 he says, as he proceeds to comment on
the popularity with the nobility of the author of the
" Parthonopeus " and Marie de France, and to beg
his audience to listen to his song, if they wish to
hear something a thousand times sweeter and worthier
of their notice than the compositions of either
versifier, and what moreover will do good to their
souls. The prologue finished, he begins the Life : The Life.

"Ore oyez, Cristiene gent,
Vus qui en Dieu Omnipotent
Auez et fey e esperance
E de salvaciun fiance."

The Life extends to 3,286 verses and ends :

" La teste unt pur ces desevre
Loinz del cors que nel trouassent
Cristiens, ne al cois la justassent
E que en honeste sepulture
Ne meissent, par aventure,
Le chief et le cors ensement
Del martir Dieu Omnipotent. "

1 See the article "Denis Piramus " in the " Histoire Litteraire
de la France," vol. xix. 629, where special mention is made of his
MS. Life of St. Edmund. In this article Piramus' reference to the
" Parthonopeus " (whose author is unknown) is taken as an acknow-
ledgment of himself as the author, but really Denis does no more
than contrast himself with the writer of the "Parthonopeus de
Blois':and of Marie de France. "The Abbe" de la Rue," says
Hardy, " in his ' Essais historiques sur les Bardes ' (vol. iii. p. 101),
makes no suggestion as to Denis being the author of the ' Par-
thonopeus.' He had the MS. before him, and he would, I think,
have noticed the fact, had he interpreted the sentence as M.
Francique Michael, the author of the article in ' Histoire
Littdraire,' had done."

314 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Th<> thud part After the Life come 714 verses or lines on the " Mira-
cles," l but the work is incomplete and ends abruptly.
As an historical piece Denis Piramus' poem has much
in common with the works of St. Abbo, Gaufridus,
Gainiar and Simeon of Durham;2 but it is fuller,
and excels them all as a fervent eulogy of St.
Edmund.

The English epic Two hundred years after the death of Denis

by the Benedic-
tine Lydgate. Piramus, the monk-poet of St. Edmund's Bury and

the disciple of Chaucer composed his famous epic in
English :

" The noble story to putte in remembraunce

Off Sancte Edmond, mayde, Martyr and Kyng. " 3

With the united love of a son for his father, of
a loyal subject for his king, of a devout client for
his saintly patron, John Lydgate sang of St. Edmund.
Nine copies of his work live in manuscript, some
with the addition of the " Miracles " or other
rhythmic pieces in honour of the martyr, but all
rich in language and pathos. The devout poet, while
adhering strictly to historical fact, ever and anon
breaks forth into hymns and prayers and invocations.
One copy 4 begins with a Latin poem, another 5 ends
with " a requeste of the translatour unto seynt
Edmond in conservacion of his franchyse," commen-
cing the prayer, " Now let us alle with hertly
confydense," &c. The preface of the Ashmole MS.
46 i. is followed by the invocation, " 0 precious
Charbouncle of Martirs alle," placed at the beginning

1 Fol. 16.

2 Both Gainiar and Simeon of Durham have written at length
on St. Edmund, but it is impossible to notice every chronicler
of the royal martyr's life and passion.

3 See Authorities Chapter II. fora full account of Dom Lydgate.

4 MS. Harl. 4826.

5 MS. Bodl. Tanner 347 f. 98.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 315

of this volume, and in Ashmole 463 the eighty-
seventh stanza is followed by the invocation to the
saint and prayer for the king, " 0 Glorious Martir,
which of devout humblesse," &c. These are samples
of the outpourings of the learned Benedictine's heart
towards the grand patron of his abbey and country.
Royal hands did not disdain to accept his poem, and
Henry VI. and Edward IV. set high value on
the copies which the monks presented to them.

One of these copies illustrates the labour and skill The scribes'

tribute.

which the monastic illuminators and scribes bestowed
on all manuscripts treating of their martyr patron.
The highest order of workmanship distinguishes most
of those extant. In some the love of the scribe has
specially lavished itself on the name " Edmund."
Herman would write it in gold wherever it occurred ;
others, like Prior Osbert or Samson, made it to
stand out from their pages in crimson or in emerald
and gold. But " The Life and Acts of St. Edmund
the King and Martyr" by John Lydgate, presented
to King Henry VI., surpassed them all in brilliant
colouring, thick gold, blackest lettering, whitest vellum
and beautiful pictures. This, the richest illuminated
manuscript in the world, is a standing record of the
devotion of transcriber and painter to St. Edmund.1

No generation of chroniclers from the century of The homage of

the centuries.

the saint's birth failed in its literary tribute to his
memory. His contemporary Asser began the series.
Each succeeding age produced its conspicuous bio-
grapher and a host of minor ones. Thus St. Abbo
wrote in the tenth century ; Herman the archdeacon
and Gaufridus de Fontibus in the eleventh ;2 William

1 For a description of it see the Harleian Catalogue, vol. ii. pp.
€39, 640.

2 The MS. Bodl. Digby 109 speaks, so it appears from a note
taken in reading it, of Gaufridus as living in the llth century.

316 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

of Malmesbury, Osbert de Clare1 and Samson in the
twelfth ; William of Eamsey, Denis Piramus and
Roger of Wendover in the thirteenth ; Matthew of
Westminster and the copious Richard of Cirencester
in the fourteenth ; Lydgate and Capgrave 2 in the
fifteenth ; Polydorus Vergil, and Harpsfield in the
sixteenth, and the second French biographer, Pierre
de Caseneuve, in the seventeenth. All these and a
hundred others, impressed by the charm and noble-
ness of Edmund's character, committed their thoughts
and knowledge to writing, in order to hand down
from age to age an unbroken record of devotion to
one of the most popular English saints.

he pilgrimage It is not surprising that this wide-spread know-
to St. Edmund's

court. ledge and admiration of St. Edmund, and the

noble and unique individuality which his name
implied, should attract pilgrims from every part of
Christendom. Pilgrimages in the middle ages, unlike
modern excursions, were prompted by feelings of
piety and reverence. The pilgrimage to the
" seven incorrupt " was a favourite devotion with
our Catholic forefathers, and St. Edmund's Bury or

its popularity. Court was the most favoured among the seven. Round
his shrine the devout female sex — specialis Eadmundi
gloria 3 — had an honourable place, which contrasted
favourably with their reception when visiting St.
Cuthbert, from whose church at Durham they were
for a long time excluded.4 St. Edmund's was, more-
over, one of the three great pilgrimages of England,
determined every year by the " lasting out " of the
votive candles lighted for that purpose. No one can

1 A.D. 1136. Bale (i. 189) states that Prior Osbert flourished
in the time of Innocent II., A.D. 1130, and wrote a Life of SL
Edward the Confessor, which he presented to that pontiff's legate.

2 Capgrave's is the first printed life and in black letter.

3 Herman.

4 Simeon of Durham, ii. 7, Rolls ed.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 31?

fail to be struck with the pictures of the times
which these pilgrimages ever and anon unveil.
Whole villages full of Christian sympathy would
accompany their blind or sick or lame to seek a
cure ; at the first sight of the abbey-towers all knelt
to salute St. Edmund, and on arriving within a mile
of the city completed the journey barefoot ; bishops,
nobles, and people joined in the pilgrimage, and, as
the numerous parties approached the gates of the
town, the concourse increased to thousands, especially
about the 20th of November. The great barons of
the realm and their numerous retainers could there
meet without creating surprise in 1205 and again in
1214. Large accommodation was needed for the
pilgrims ever coming and going, and till lately Cook
Row, Abbey Gate Street, in which they took their
meals, bore traces of the kind supplied. Thus the foot-
sore and disappointed, like Abbot Samson " when his
soul was struck with sorrow," the poor and the
weary the happy and the fortunate, came to sit
down under the shadow of St. Edmund's shrine,
feeling that no resting-place could be sweeter or
more peaceful.

St. Edmund's fame like Solomon's brought his Royal pilgrim
fellow-monarchs to worship at his shrine. " Even
kings themselves, who rule others," wrote William
of Malmesbury, " used to boast of being St. Edmund's
servants." From the time of Canute it was usual
for our kings to send their crown to his church and
afterwards to redeem it at a great price, and even to
be crowned there anew. Some showed a special love
for St. Edmund. St. Edward the Confessor delighted
to call him his cousin and kinsman, and frequently
visited his sanctuary, within a mile of which he
would alight from his horse and make the remainder
of the journey on foot, " giving this open testimony

318 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

of his humility and devotion," and of his acknow-
ledgment of King Edmund's more exalted sovereignty.
Henry I. made a special pilgrimage of thanksgiving
for his preservation from shipwreck. Henry II. after
the martyrdom of St. Thomas came to St. Edmund
in penitential garb, to beg his protection against his
sons, and to make his confession to Abbot Samson.
Richard the Lion-Heart, before starting for the Holy
Land, in person recommended his crusade to the
prayers of the soldier Edmund. " King John, imme-
diately after his coronation, setting aside all other
affairs," says Jocelin, " came down to St. Edmund,
drawn thither by his vow and devotion." Edward
I. and his queen visited the abbey and shrine
thirteen times. Henry VII. was the last Catholic
king to visit St. Edmund's, and Mary, queen dowager
of France and sister of Henry VIII., the last Catholic
queen.1
The pilgrimage The pilgrimage of Henry VI. described in Abbot

of King Henry

vi. Curteys' Register will give some idea of the character

NOV i 1433 °f these royal visits.2 On All Saint's Day, 1433, the
young king announced in parliament his intention of
making a visit to St. Edmund's Bury. The news
reached Abbot Curteys while he was staying at his
manor of Elmswell six miles from the abbey. With-
out delay he returned to the monastery to prepare
for the royal visit ; — no slight undertaking, for house
The preparation, and board had to be provided for a king, a court and
all the numerous attendants, from the lords and
knights to the lowest valets. At once he engaged

1 When the abbey was in ruins, Elizabeth came to gloat over
its destruction.

2 This account was communicated to the Society of Antiquaries
in 1803 by Craven Ord, Esq., who took it from Abbot Curteys'
Register, which then belonged to him . It is printed in the ' ' Archaeo-
logia," vol. xv. pp. 65-71 ; see also Yates' account and the supple-
ment to the " Tablet," Dec. 26, 1891.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAIiTYit. 319

eighty workmen to repair his house or " palace " and
to decorate and beautify it, and appointed one hundred
officers of every rank to attend on Henry during
his stay. He summoned the aldermen and chief
burgesses to discuss how they might best receive
their prince and in what dress, and it was agreed
that the aldermen should wear scarlet, and their
inferiors red cloth gowns and hoods of blood colour.
At daybreak on Christmas eve. the day fixed for the Christmas evo

1433.

king's arrival, these gaily dressed burgesses, five
hundred in number, started from the town on horse-
back, in open ranks stretching a mile along the
road, to meet the king and his brilliant retinue at
Newmarket Heath. Crowds of spectators from the
town and villages of St. Edmund's franchise, eager to
catch a glimpse of their sovereign, filled the streets
and the vast abbey-courts. Henry and his gay
cavalcade entered the precincts by the great gateway
of the cemetery l into the full view of the western
front of the basilica with its Norman towers and The reception,
unbroken width of 250 feet. Its huge doors of
bronze, cunningly chiselled by Brother Hugh, were
thrown open at his approach, and the community
to the number of seventy or eighty issued forth, all
vested in precious copes, headed by cross and candles
and followed by the abbot in full pontificals, with
Bishop Alnwich of Norwich by his side, whom the
monks had invited to join them as host. The
brilliant procession divided, so as to allow the
abbot and bishop to pass through their ranks,
while the Earl of Warwick, alighting from his
horse, offered his arm to the king to assist him

1 This gateway was not in ruins at this or any other time, as the
writer in the " Tablet " of December 26, 1891, implies. The central
tower of the church was, however, at this time in ruins, but after-
wards rebuilt by Abbot Curteys.

320 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

to dismount. Henry advanced towards the pro-
cession, and, as lie knelt upon the silken carpet spread
out on the ground, the abbot, approaching, sprinkled
him with holy water and presented the crucifix, which
the king devoutly kissed. Then the procession
The king turned and re-entered the stately church, the whole

shrine. of the varied crowd following. An unbroken length

of 500 feet stretched before them, guarded on either
side by ranks of massive Norman columns and
illuminated by painted roof and coloured glass. The
organ burst forth in jubilant strains of music, and
the vaulting of the vast basilica rang with the
anthem of the martyred king, "Ave Rex gentis
Anglorum," which the whole body of monks chanted
in unison as they led the boy -king to the high
altar. Then Henry, having prayed before the Blessed
Sacrament, which hung over the altar in a cup of
pure gold presented by Henry III. for that purpose,
passed through one of the side doors in the painted
altar-screen into the feretory beyond, to pay his

The feretory

itself. devotions to the shrine of the martyr. This master-

piece of art had grown richer since the days of
Abbot Samson. A precious sapphire and a ruby
of great price, the special gifts of King John, now
sparkled among the other jewels, countless in number,
which were set in the plates of solid gold. On the
right side again, among other additions, a golden cross,
surmounted by a flaming carbuncle and set thick with
jewels, glistened in the work, and a second golden
cross, weighing sixty-six shillings, the gift of the
same benefactor, Henry Lacy, the last Earl of
Lincoln of that name, crowned one apex of the
shrine. At the four corners four great waxen
candles burned day and night, the cost of which
was defrayed by the rent of a Norfolk manor, a legacy
of King Richard I. Above the whole stretched a

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTVK. 321

canopy adorned witli painted pictures. Here then,
upon a cloth spread over the marble step, the boy-king
knelt to pay his devotions to St. Edmund, and having
finished his prayers, he turned to the abbot, thanked
him for the reception given him and passed with
his suite into the abbot's palace. Henry spent
Christmastide at the abbey, being present at all the
Church solemnities. After the Epiphany celebrations
he moved into the prior's house to enjoy the special
hospitality of the monks, and to have easier access
through the " vineyard " to the far-stretching wood
beyond, in which king and court could indulge in
the healthy pastime of the chase. During Henry's stay Dom John

Ijydgate

at the abbey the aged Dom John Lydgate, at the presents in*
time prior of Hatfield, Broadoak, the poet of his day
.and without a rival in England, presented to him
a neatly written and gorgeously illuminated poem of
" St. Edmund's Acts and Life " which has now be-
come one of our national treasures. The young
king spent Lent with the monks, joined in the
celebrations of Easter and then prepared to leave.
But first he petitioned to be received into the
fraternity of the family of St. Edmund.1 The Earl The king is

admitted to

of Warwick and his countess had already petitioned fraternity-
for and received the favour ; other courtiers had
followed their example, notably Humphrey Duke of
Gloucester, the king's uncle. Henry would not leave
the monastery and the many friends he had made

1 The ancient and present Benedictine system of admission to
fraternity differs from the third orders which had their rise in the
thirteenth century. In the Benedictine fraternity the bond of
union is not to the order but to a particular house, to which hence-
forth the con/rater holds a distinct and personal relation. He
receives a share in the prayers and good works of the monastery,
and himself engages to make its interests his own. He becomes
• one of the members of the monastic family who have received him.

322 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

there without suing for a like privilege. Having
prostrated himself before the shrine of the saint he
went to the chapter-house with Gloucester and other
nobles, and sent to inform the abbot of his desire.
Abbot Curteys and the whole convent at once
assembled in chapter and granted the young king's
petition. The usual solemnities took place, and the
sovereign and all the new confratres received the
kiss of peace. Then the Duke of Gloucester, kneel-
ing, reminded the king to thank the abbot for his
kindness. Taking the prelate by the hand, Henry
thanked him again and again, bade farewell to the
assembled monks, and touchingly commended himself
to God, to St. Edmund and to them. The kin«

Tin- ruyal

departure. ancl his train then passed out of the abbey precincts,
the five hundred good and true men of Bury, in
their scarlet robes and red cloth gowns with blood-
red hoods, escorting him the first stage of his journey
to London. As the years of his troubled reign
flowed on, Henry looked back with regret to those
peaceful days at St. Edmund's, till again at the
shrine, weighed down with sorrow, he mourned the
murder of his uncle the good Duke of Gloucester.
uistiii-'uuiie.i Besides royalty the highest ecclesiastical dignities
thetonV181' visited the martyr's tomb to reverence the saint and
show their admiration for his principles. Cardinals
and legates, archbishops, bishops and abbots knelt
at the shrine to beg the intercession of St. Edmund,
and afterwards to make him their offerings. The
monks delighted to recall the names of such pilgrims
as Blessed Lanfranc and St. Anselm, St. Thomas a
Becket and Cardinal Langton.

The description l of Archbishop Arundel's pil-

Archbishoi)

Arundei, A.I. grimage in the year 1400 illustrates the nature of

1400.

1 Given by Yates.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 323

these visits, always made, as the abbey registers have
it, " saving the rights of the monastery." The prior
and convent met him in the nave of the basilica,
and after the usual sprinkling with holy water and
kissing of the crucifix, all advanced to the high
altar, and thence through the choir to the shrine of
St. Edmund beyond. After his prayer, the arch-
bishop expressed his admiration of the painting and
decoration of the feretory. Then withdrawing to the
abbot's palace, he took some refreshment, and after-
wards returned to the church for vespers. Next
day being Sunday, the archbishop heard two masses
in the Chapel of the Eelics, himself celebrated a third,
and then heard two more. After this he devoutly
approached the shrine to make his oblation. From
the church the monks conducted the illustrious
prelate through the great cemetery to the chapel of
St. Andrew and thence into the vineyard. The party
returned by the infirmary, visited the hall and
chamber of the prior, and, passing through the
cloisters, came to the refectory. Leaving the refectory,
they reached the " palace " about eleven o'clock, and
there the lord abbot sumptuously entertained the
archbishop and the Earl of Suffolk and their
attendants. The clergy and squires of the archbishop
declared that never had they been entertained in so
honourable and splendid a manner. When the time
came for the prelate to bid farewell to his hosts, the
abbot, the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Maubray, the prior,
sacrist, cellerarius, and a great multitude of people
attended him to liysby on his road to Newmarket.

The road to Newmarket was only one of the T]ie j,j].,rims.
pilgrims' ways which converged towards St. Edmund's W!
Bury. Crowds entered by all the ways, but pilgrims
from the south had a special devotion for the route
by which Ailwin travelled with the saint's body on

324

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAHTYE.

The pilgrimage
to Heglesduui-
or HOXIIP.

Churches and

chapels under

the invocation of

st. Kdmnnd

In England,

his return to Beodricsworth. For five centuries they
remembered the highway which, as they said,
St. Edmund himself had traversed, and towns, like
Braintree, on the main road from London to Suffolk
gained their importance from the concourse of
pilgrims who tarried at their inns.

Neither did the lovers of St. Edmund forget the
little chapel at Heglesdune, the martyr's first resting-
place, which continued to be a favourite place of
pilgrimage for many centuries. It belonged to the
Benedictines of Norwich, who rebuilt it as the cell
or chapel of St. Edmund King and Martyr, dependent
on their cathedral priory. Langtoft sings of it:

" Where he was shot, a noble chapel stands."

Near by, the monks built Heglesdune or Hoxne
Priory, and thither the bishops of Norwich often
came to rest and pray. Thomas Brown, the 27th
bishop, and William Lyhert or Hart, the 29th,
breathed their last there. Those who visited St.
Edmund's Bury generally made the pilgrimage to
the scene of the martyrdom also, thereby gaining an
indulgence of forty days.1

It is not surprising that the feelings inspired by

. ' , . " . .

a visit to the martyr s shrine bore rruit in the
erection of churches and altars under his invocation
at home and abroad. Christian art adorned these
with paintings and sculptures, which appealed to the
hearts and intellects of a Catholic people, while they
illustrated the legend of the Martyr's life. " So," writes
Green, " his figure gleamed from the pictured windows
of every church along the eastern coast."

Fifty-five of these old churches are still left stand-
ing, 2 of which Southwold church, St. Edmund the

1 Which can still be gained on the same conditions.

2 There are fifteen remaining in Norfolk and seven in Suffolk.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 325

Martyr's, Lombard Street, London, St. Edmund's,
Northampton, Dunwich church, and the chapel at
Derehain in Norfolk, where the poet Cowper lies
Ituried, are examples. In great English abbey and
cathedral churches, as at (Jhichester and Tewkesbury,
devout clients also raised chapels or altars in honour
of the martyr. The chapel of St. Edmund behind
the high altar of Tewkesbury abbey church still
retains the sculptured history of its royal patron.
Not only in England but even abroad St. Edmund A"llabl'"!"'-
received special honour. A church and hospice of
St. Edmund the king and martyr existed in Eome
in the middle ages. l A church of St. Edmund
was built at Damietta, and existed there in the
twelfth century. Eobillet, bishop of Avesnes and
suffragan bishop of Autun, on Sept. 22, 1489, con-
secrated an altar to the martyr kings SS. Edmund
and Oswald in the priory church of Bar-le-Regulier.
St. Edmund's altar stood in the portico of St. Martin's
cathedral church at Lucca in the eleventh century,
and his chapel in St. John's church at Dijon in the
eighteenth. The English Benedictines in the seven-
teenth century dedicated their church at Paris under
his name. And if these ancient memorials of St.
Edmund have perished or are forgotten, modern
devotion, at least in the eastern counties, still com-
memorates by new churches and windows and
sculptures the saint who for seven centuries was the
exemplar of our sovereigns, the model of our youth, the
patron of our knights, and a tutelar saint of our country.2

1 See Appendix.

- For example, the church at Bungay, the monastery at Douai,
and the church at Bury hold St. Edmund as their patron, and his
ligure and arms may be seen in modern sculpture and painted
«,'lass, not only in his own city, but in places as wide apart as
(Cheltenham and Blyth, Cambridge and Douai.

326 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

The feast of st. In parish-church and humble chapel, in abbey and

Kdmund,

November, -20. cathedral, the martyr's two annual festivals were
kept with unusual solemnity. The day of the martyr-
dom had never been forgotten. The Eoman and several
other Martyrologies recorded it on the 20th of November
in these words : " In England the commemoration of
St. Edmund, king and martyr" At his own monas-
tery the monks doubtless celebrated the day with as

The ringing in of great solemnity as Christmas or Easter. On the
previous evening four successive changes of the great
bells, subject, like everything else in an orderly
house, to rule, announced to monks, townspeople and
pilgrims the quality of the festival. The two Londons,
the greater and the Holy- water bell, clanged out the
first peal. The bells of the cemetery, including the
-Gabriel or thunderstorm bell, and the chimes of St.
Mary's, St. James' and St. Margaret's rang out the
second and third peal. Lastly, the younger monks,
sounding the chimes in the great lantern-tower, gave
the signal to all the bells of the monastery to take
up the music. The united peals from far and wide,
with the well-known Haut-et-Cler bell, ringing high
and clear above the others, produced the fourth
peal, or Le Glas, as the citizens called it.

Preparation for ^ tae ^rst Pea^ the monks hastened from the
dormitory to the lavatory to wash, and thence to
the choir to put on the albs there laid out for them, in
preparation for vespers, while the abbot, prior,
cantors and other ministers put on copes in the
sacristy.

Meantime torches and candles were lighted through-

The lighting of

out the church. The four huge candles, never
extinguished, burnt at the angles of the shrine,
twenty-four of a pound weight, round the walls of
the feretory, and seventeen in the windows of the
presbytery ; before the high altar, four large torches

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 327

of four pounds weight with the great candle, and
the seven of the same size which continued burning till
second vespers in the branch candlestick with gold
reflectors. In the church twelve great torches were
ablaze in the choir and rood, twelve in the lantern-
tower, twenty-six in each transept, twenty-four under
the arches of the nave, several before each of the
twenty-four altars, and twelve each of eight pounds
weight before the Lady altar.

At the fourth peal of the bells, the grand procession ls
of prelates and cantors in cope, and assistant ministers
and priests and clerics from many parts, marched
into the choir. Vespers commenced with the single
antiphon, " Ave rex gentis Anglorum," sung by
the whole body of monks and people. Now a few
picked voices, now all together, sang the other parts
of the office. At the "Magnificat" took place the S
elaborate incensing. The prior, who had been wait-
ing either in the vestry or before the altar of St.
Saba, entered the choir and joined the abbot, sub-
prior, sacrist, the abbot's chaplains and the vestiarius,
preceded by two acolytes and two thurifers. The
abbot, having put incense into both thuribles, took
one, the prior the other; then they jointly incensed
the Blessed Sacrament hanging over the altar in the
majcstas. Next, passing through the doors of the
altar screen, the abbot by the south door, preceded
by two acolytes, and the sub-prior carrying the thurible
the prior by the north, each with his part of the
procession, they perform the same ceremony at the
shrines of St. Edmund, SS. Botulph, Thomas, and
Firminus, and Abbot Baldwin, as well as at the little
altar of the choir in front of the last. Returning
they incense the monks. Lastly the prior proceeds
to incense the altar of the holy cross at the feet
of St. Edmund's shrine, and the altar in the Lady

328 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

chapel. The prolonged and solemn " Magnificat "
finished, the prayer chanted and the " Benedicamus "
sung, the brilliant procession passed out of the choir,
and the throng of pilgrims and burgesses dispersed
to their lodgings and homes to talk of St. Edmund
and the festivities of the morrow.

Matins and When the bells rang out again in the silence of

the night for matins, the same scene was repeated
with longer and more magnificent ceremonial. An
expectant multitude of pilgrims again thronged the
vast building, for religion was interwoven with the
life of the people, and they delighted in the solemn
worship of God. The shadows of the night
magnified the spacious structure and added a deeper
brilliancy to the religious light. The disposition of
the candles and torches purposely left the nave in
comparative darkness, while the transept arms shone
bright, and from the strong lantern-tower fell rays
of brilliant light upon the Eood and the attendant
figures of our Lady and St. John. Again the choir
was dimly illuminated, while the altar and the
feretory blazed with light. The monks sang the long
matins and the lauds which followed. At the clos-
ing of each nocturn at matins, an increased number
of cantors in cope sang the responsory, standing
around Prior Brundish's gorgeous an ti phonal. As
on other principal feasts, two picked voices would
with thrilling effect send their clear and resonant
tones through the vaulted roof of the basilica in
such antiphons as " Gloriosus Dei Athleta ^dmun-
dus." The same elaborate incensing as at vespers
marked the end of each nocturn and the " Bene-
dictus" of lauds, so that before the end of the office
the church was fragrant with a cloud of incense.

The procession The great mass of St. Edmund would be pre-

be lore the high •, -,•,.•, • -,i i i

mass ceded by the procession. Servers with holy water

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 329

and two thuribles led the way ; next two cross-
bearers in copes, each accompanied by two torch -
bearers ; then two secular chaplains in albs and
copes bore the shrine containing St. Edmund's camisia;
three sub-deacons followed, of whom one — the epis-
tolar of the mass — reverently carried the great
gospel-book, the sumptuous gift of Abbot Samson,
and the other two " texts " of lesser price ; three
deacons walked next carrying relics, the middle
one — the gospeller — having the reliquary with Ave
at the top. Following them a priest, a grave and
ancient senior, carried the arm of St. Edmund, and
after him two by two the whole convent, with the
precentor and the succentor regulating the chant,
the former with the seniors, the latter with the juniors.
The abbot in full pontiticals closed the procession,
followed by as many of the burgesses and pilgrims as
chose to join. The procession passed along the Ar..mui the

cloisters,

west cloister by the statue of Anselm, the first mitred
abbot, and so through the south cloister to the east,
from which it entered the crypt under the eastern part into the Cryi»t.
of the church, which was occupied above by the shrine
of St. Edmund. Twenty-four columns supported this
subterranean church, dedicated, like that at Canter-
bury, to the Blessed Virgin. When all had entered,
the clerics placed the relics upon the altar, and the
ministers ranging themselves within the altar-rails,
the prior and sub-prior incensed the altar and the
dignitaries, and the thurifers the community. Six
voices sang a prose in honour of the martyr, and
the prayer of the Station being said, the procession
returned through the cloister to the church, singing
hymns in praise of St. Edmund. l Arrived in the

1 I am indebted to the supplement to the " Tablet " of Dec. 26,
1891, for this beautiful description of a St. Edmund's Bury pro-
cession and for many of the details of this part of the chapter.

330 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

choir, the convent venerated the relics, and then the
mass began. The precentor and succentor, assisted

The great mass, by four companions, sang the Introit. Into the
" Kyrie " tliey inserted one of the two fansnrce or
antiphons allowed by the old use of the house. The
whole choir of monks sang the " Gloria in excelsis,"
their trained voices making the mighty roof of the
basilica re-echo with the chant. A jubilant peal
of bells from the great tower prefaced the singing
of the Sequence, and when the mass was over, the
joy-bells rang out again, and priests and monks
and people left the church to assemble again later
for vespers.

St. Edmund's monks kept a second feast of their

The feast of patron on April 29, the anniversary of the trans-

tlie Translation, .

Apni 20. lation or his sacred body by Abbot Baldwin from

the old round chapel to the new church. Both
festivals were kept in the refectory also, the old
" Liber Coenobii," or customary of St. Edmund's Bury,
allowing a third fcrculum or dish in the aula or dining-
hall at the principal meal on the feast of St.
Edmund, and also 011 its dies octava and on the dies
translationis. l

Both feasts were observed beyond the limits of
franchise. A decree of the Council of

Ti.o feasts ke t

KnS'i!ut Oxford in 1222 made the 20th of November a holy-
day of obligation for the whole of England, and in
1298 the feast of the translation was extended to
every diocese in the kingdom. 2 After the break-up of
religion in this country, the English Benedictines of
St. Edmund's monastery at Paris still continued to

An.i in France, solemnize the greater festival, and the annalist of

1 They also seem to have annually kept a feast of the translation
of St. Edmund by Abbot Leofstan on June 20.

2 The feast of St. Edmund was also observed at Lucca from a
very early date.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 331

the house, Dom Bennet Weldon, records the plenary
indulgence to be annually gained on the martyr's
feast in his Paris church, and informs us that, besides
the Augustinians at Toulouse, the monks of the
noble abbey of Fecamp in Normandy and the Bene-
dictines of St.-Maur observed St. Edmund's day
with solemnity. At the present time the Church in
England keeps it as a double major, and the Bene-
dictines at Douai and the Catholics in the martyr's
own town as a feast of the first class.

With what antiphons and prayers, lessons and The utm^y <>t

the martyr's

responsories, hymns and canticles ancient England feast-
celebrated St. Edmund's memory, may be seen from
the old liturgies or fragments of them which have
survived the sixteenth century wreck. Of these the
office written by St. Abbo and found at the end of
his " Vita Sti Edmundi " in the Bodleian Library l is
the most interesting and beautiful. The lessons have
been copied into the exquisitely written and illumi-
nated manuscript on St. Edmund in the Public
Library of Copenhagen. 2 Hardy, ignorant of the ar-
rangement and terminology of the breviary, speaks
of the lessons and responsories as " short pieces of
prose and hymns alternately occurring." St. Abbo
really divides them into nocturns, and heads the
" Lectiones," or lessons, according to present custom.
In the arrangement of this old tenth-century office
and the recurrence in it of the familiar hymns " Deus
tuorum militum " and " Martyr Dei qui unicum," it
is gratifying to trace our continuity with the past.
In the original all the antiphons and responsories

1 MS. Digby 109, a small folio volume of 13th century penman-
ship.

2 MS. 1588, an 8vo volume in vellum in a 12th century hand. The
lessons for the day of St. Edmund come after a copy of St. Abbo's

"Vita."

332

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

are put to chant. The wording of them is so ex-

ceedingly beautiful that no apology is needed for
transcribing them here.

The urstvespei-s. The single antiphon for vespers resembles the

The single

Regina coelorum " of our Lady.

!-•-•

— • 1

I I •

Ave rex gentis An- glor -um, mi-les re-gis an-ge - lo - rum.

I I

0 ^M-mun- de ttos mar - ty - rum, ve - lut rosa vel li - li -

um, fun-de pre - ces ad Do - minum, pro sa - lu e

fi - de - li - um.

(P n e u m a . )

King Edmund, hail ! East Anglians' king,

Hail, soldier of the Angels, sing !

Thy valour's bright beyond compare,

Thy virtues rose and lily share ;

Pour forth thy prayers at Jesus' feet,

That we with thee in heaven may meet. '

Psalm. Dixit Dominus.
Hymn. Deus tuorum inilitnm.

1 Translation by the late Father Lazenby, S. J., a devout client
of St. Edmund. St. Catharine of Sienna made a similar reference
to the red rose of martyrdom : "In His mercy," she says, " He
has granted me the white rose of virginity, und I had hoped He
would add the red rose of martyrdom, but I am disappointed of
my hope, and doubtless it is my innumerable sins that are the
cause." (Life of St. Catharine of Sienna, p. 416, 1st edit.)

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

333

The Antiphon for the " Magnificat " is a soul-movin" The Autiphou

0 atthe" Magnif

call to Englishmen to glory in the possession of so cat-"
noble a hero :

Ad Magnificat Ant. Exulta
sancta ecclesia totius gentis
Anglice ; : ecce in manibus est
laudatio /Edmundi, regis incliti,
et martyris invictissinii, qui
triumphato innndi principe celos
ascendit victoriossime. Sancte
Pater .'Edmunde, tuis suppli-
cibus intende.

Antiphon at the Magnificat.
Exult, O holy Church of the
entire English nation ; behold to
thee it is given to praise Edmund,
the illustrious king and the most
invincible martyr, who, triumph-
ing over the prince of this world,
most victoriously ascended into
heaven. Holy Father Edmund,
hearken to thy suppliants.

The invitatory of matins runs thus :

Matins.

Invitatorium. Regem regum
adoremus in milite suo JEd-
inundo gloriosum : * per quern
ecclesiam suam mirificavit et
celi senatum letificavit.

Let us adore the The Invltatory.

Hymn.

Invitatory.

King of kings, glorious in His
soldier Edmund: * through whom
He has made wonderful His
Church and given joy to the
court of heaven.
Martyr Dei, qui unicuni.

The Hymn.

THE FIRST NOCTURN.

Ant. Saint Edmund, flower The Antiphons

Ant. Sanctus ^dmundus
clarissimus natalibus oriundus
a primevo juventutis tempore earliest youth followed Christ

his

f .1, , . ,. , , . oftlietirst

of an illustrious line, from his xocturn.

Christum toto secutiis est pec- with
tore.

Ps. Beatus vir.

whole heart.

Ant. Cumque inventus ado-
lesceret cum gratia, eum in regni
solio Dei sublimavit providentia,
ecclesiae suae statuens defensorem
pro qua usque ad sanguinem
^ecertaret.

Ant. And when found to
have grown up to youth in grace,
God's Providence raised him to
the throne of a kingdom, and
established him a defender of
His Church, for which he strove
even to thesheddingof his blood.

Ps. Quare fremuerunt gentes.

Ant. Legem dedit rex era- Ant. The cruel king Inguar

delis Inguar, ut ^Edmundum gave command to force Edmund

1 The e in place of the re or (c is common among medieval writers.

3:34

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

exilio relegarent, aut capite into exile, or rather to cut
potius detruncarent, si eum suis off his head, if they could not
legibus inclinare aut subdere bend him to their laws or subdue
non possent. him.

Ps. Domine quid.

The Response- The nine lessons of this beautiful office are omitted
first xocturn here for fear of wearying the reader, but the re-

lessons. „ , . ,

sponsories alter each are given as they occur.

I. R7. Sancte indolis puer,
/Edmundus ex antiquoruiu per-
sonis reguni nativitatis sumpsit
exordium. InformavitRex celes-
tis : * Ut sibi coheredem trans-
ferret in celis. Jt. Cujus
infantiam illustravit Spiritus
Sancti gratia, quoniam cornpla-
cuit sibi in illo anima Domini
Jesu.* Ut sibi.

II. R7. Egregium decus et
salus magna fuit, quod in solio
regni princeps Dei .Edmundus
surrexit : * Cum in templo Dei
ut columna lucis et fulsit. y.
Vita ejus gloriosa virtutibus,
distincta fuit sanctitate et pie-
tate decora. * Cum in templo.

III. R7. Miles Christi sanc-
tus, ^Edmundus, Spiritu Sanc-
to plenus dixit ad regem : Non
me tue incurvant amicitie, nee
tormenta terrent mine. *Glori-
osum est enim mori pro Domino.
y. Ignis et ferruni super mel et
favum michi est jocundum. *
Gloriosum. Gloria. Gloriosum.

I. 1^. Edmund, a boy of
saintly character, was descended
from an ancient race of kings.
The heavenly King fashioned
him,* that hemight translate him
to heaven as his coheir. Thegrace
of the Holy Ghost illumined his
childhood, for the spirit of Jesus
Christ in him was pleasing to
Him. That he might, &c.

II. R;. Transcendent was
our glory, great our security,
because the prince of God, Ed-
mund, ascended the throne of our
kingdom. * Since in God's
temple even as a column of light
he shone, y. His life, glorious
by its virtues, was conspicuous
for holiness, and beautiful with
piety. * Since in God's temple,
&c.

III. 1^7. The holy soldier of
Christ, Edmund, full of the Holy
Ghost, spoke to the king : Thy
friendship does not make me
deviate, nor thy threats and
torments frighten me. * For it
is glorious to die for the Lord.
"ft. Fire and sword are sweet-
to me above honey and the
honeycomb. *For it is glori-
ous, &c. Glory be to the
Father, &c. For it is glorious
&c.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

335

THE SECOND NOCTURN.

Ant.

Edmund indeed spoke, The Antigen
xi TT i fM i of the second
but it was even the Holy Ghost Noctiirn.

Ant. Ait autem yEdmundus,
sed et Spiritus Sanctus per os
ejus : Non me terrent exilii speaking by his mouth : Threats
mine, nee inclinant regis ami- of banislnnent do not frighten
citie ; jocundum est pro Deo me, nor a king's offer of friend-
me Deo ship move me. It is pleasant
to die for God ; behold let it be
given to me to become a sacri-

mori ; ecce contingat
sacrificium fieri.

fice to God.

Ps. Cum

Ant. Vinctus ferro lamenta-
bilibus illuditur modis ; atque
stipite religatus, flagrisexuritur ;
turn \arias mortis species pro
Christo letus amplcctitur.

invocarem.

Ant. Bound with chains, he
is piteously mocked ; and tied
to a tree, he is branded by
scourges ; then he joyfully em-
braces death in many forms for
Christ's sake.
Ps. Verba mea.

Ant. In proportion to the
glory of the reward, the pain
also increased ; as a target is he
set up, and covered over with
darts ; and lie embraces a thou-
sand deaths, while he beseeches
Christ with a countenance un-
moved.
Ps. Domine Dominus noster.

Crescit ad penam

Ant. Quo amplior esset mer-
cedis gloria, accrevit et pena ; ad
signuni positus telis obruitur ; et
mille mortis species amplecti-
tur ; Christumque sereno vultu
precatur.

IV.

sanctus Dei ; positus ad signuni
confoditur nimbo verberum. *
Et per omnia manet martyr in-
victus et miles emeritus, y.
Rivus sanguinis membratim de-
currit, nee jam super est locus
vulneris. * Et per omnia.

V. R?. Martyri adhuc palpi-
tanti, sed Christum confitenti,
jussit Inguar caput auferri : *
sicque ^dnnindus martyrium

IV. I^T. The holy one of

J The Response-

God grows braver at the pain ; ries of the second
, , . , . , Nocturn lessons,
set up as a target, he is buried

under a shower of arrows.*
And through all the martyr
stands unconquered and the
soldier victorious. "ft. Streams
of blood flow from limb to limb,
nor is there now any more place
for a wound. * And through
all, &c.

V. ty. The martyr still
breathing, but confessing Christ,
is ordered by Inguar to be be-
headed.* And so Edmund con-

consummavit, et ad Deum exul- summates his martyrdom, and

336

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYE.

tans vadit. l f. Caput sanc-
titate plenum decollatviin resiliit
inter verba orationis. * Sicque.

VI. R/. Itefectum ergo de
corpore caput plebs devota Deo
requisitum pergit illacrimans et
dicens :* Hen pastor bone ; heu
pater pie Eadmunde, ubi es ?
~f. Exaudivit Dominus cla-
inorem pauperum, et suscepit
gemitum servorum.* Hen.
Gloria. Heu.

THE THIRD

The Antiplions Ant- Misso spiculatore, de-

of the third crevit tyrannus Dei athletam

yEdmundum capite detruncari :

rejoicing goes to God. $". The
head, full holy, severed from the
body, rebounds uttering words of
prayer. * And so, &c.

R/. A people devoted to God
set out to seek the head then
apart from the body but living
again. They shed tears and
said : Alas, good shepherd, alas,
kind father Edmund, where art
thou ? y. The Lord has heard
the cry of the poor, and He has
received the groans of His ser-
vants.* Alas ! &c. Glory be to
the Father, &c. Alas ! &c.
NOCTURN.

Ant. The guard dismissed,
the tyrant decreed that God's
champion Edmund should be be-

TheKeBponsories
ot the third
Nocturn lessons.

sicque hynmum Deo prsesonuit headed : and so he sounded forth
et animam celo gaudens intulit. his hymn to God, and rejoicing

brought his soul to heaven.

Ps. In Domino confido.

Ant. O martyr invincibilis, Ant. O invincible martyr !
O j^idmunde, testis indomabilis ! O Edmund, unconquerable wit-
hie te dies terris exemit, et cum ness ! This day released thee
triumpho in senatu celi recon- from the earth, and trium-
didit : intercede pro nobis in phantly ushered thee into the
celis, qui post te suspiramus in court of heaven ; intercede in
terris. heaven for us who sigh after

thee on earth.

Ps. Domine quis habitabit.

Ant. Refectum ergo de cor- Ant. A people devoted to
pore caput plebs devota requisi- God set out to seek the head,
turn pergit illacrimans et dicens : then apart from the body but
Heu pastor bone, heu pater pie living again. They shed tears
^Edmunde, ubi es ? and said : Alas ! good shepherd,

alas, kind father Edmund,
where art thou ?
Ps. Posuisti Domine.

VII. R;. Caput martyris verba VII. Rj. The martyr's head
1 This R/. and its chant may be found in Jocelin, Caxton
pub., vol. 13, p. 115.

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAllTYK.

337

«didit ; ecce quern queritis,
inquit. Assam, filii.* Ecce me
regem quondam vestrum, ecce
me nunc patronum vobis ad
Deum. y. Condoluit pater plus
caris suis, quos benigno confor-
tabat alloquio. * Ecce me.

uttered words : Bebold whom
you seek, it says. I am here,
children. * Behold me, hereto-
fore your king, behold me now
your advocate with God. ~f.
The kind father condoled with
his beloved ones, whom he con-
soled with benevolent words.
* Behold me, &c.

VIII. R/. Admirable was the
finger of God upon him. * For
a couching wolf mournfully
watched over the martyr. ^.
From joy at the wonder, the
hearts of the people burst forth
into tears. * For, &c.

IX. R/. O invincible martyr !
O Edmund, unconquerable wit-
ness ! This day released thee
from earth, and triumphantly
ushered thee into the court of
heaven. * Intercede in heaven
for us who send up our sighs to
thee on earth. ~f. Shining
before the throne of God in
thy illustrious robe, we pray
thee, O loving father, * inter-
cede, &c. Glory be to the
Father, &c. O martyr, our soul
soars up to thee in our affliction.
R/. Groaning over past offences,
it mourns for its sins. O
Edmund, king and martyr, our
hope. R/. Receive graciously the
VONYS of thy servants. Give to us
joys in heaven. R/. Who on earth
send forth deep sighs to thee.

Te Deum laudamus, &*c.

LAUDS.

Ant. Quidam maligne mentis Ant. Certain evil-minded men

, , i , . , The Aiiti])li<ins

homines aggressi sunt nocturno approached under cover ot night at Lau<ls.

tempore infrin^ere Sancti basili- and attempted to break into the
cam ; sed eos in ipao conatu saint's church ; but the martyr's

VIII. R?. Admirabilis fuit
et in illo digitus Dei. *Quia ad
excubias martyris lupus procu-
buit, fovit ac doluit. ~f. Ex
jocunditate signi in lacrimas
proruperunt corda populi. *
Quia.

IX. R/. O martyr invincibi-
lis ! O Eadmunde testis indoma-
bilis ! hie te dies terris exemit,
et cum triumpho in celestis
ouriae senatu recondidit : * in-
tercede pro nobis in celis qui
post te suspiramus in terris.
~f. Collucens ante thronum
Dei stola insigni, oramus, pater
pie. * Intercede. Gloria. O
martyr, suspirat anima nostra
malis afflicta. R/. Lugensque
peracta crimina plangit delicta.
O ^dmunde rex martyr spes
nostra. R/. Suscipe famulorum
libens vota. Da nobis in celis
gaudia. R/. Qui tibi longa sus-
piria damns in terris.

338

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK.

Hymn.

Tlit; Antiphon

for the

" Benedictus.'

operis ligavit virtus martyris.

2. Ant. Facto autem mane
alius cum scala sua eminus
pependit, alius tortis brachiis
diriguit, quidam incurvus fossor
stupuit, et ita quod quisque in-
cepti habuit versa vice sibi pena
fait.

3. Ant. Quidam masnepoten-
tie vir Leofstanus, dum juvenilis
non refrenavit impetum animi,
in temeritatem incidit, accedens
ad tumbam sci, jussit sibi ossa
martyris ostendi.

4. Ant. Reserato ergo locello,
astitit, aspexit, et aspectu ne-
quam, mox vexari cepit, tan-
demque judicio perculsus divino
interiit.

5. Ant. O martyr magni
meriti, qui virttitibus ita efflo-
ruisti, intercede pro nobis.

power bound them fast in the
very act.

2. Ant. In the morning one
man hung aloft on his ladder,
another stood immovable with
his arms bent for work, a digger
remained stupefied over his
spade, and so what each one had
undertaken turned against him
and became a punishment.

3. Ant. One Leofstan, a man
of great power, from not curbing
his violent nature in youth be-
came reckless, and approaching
the tomb of the saint, demanded
that the bones of the martyr
should be shown to him.

4. Ant. The coffin was there-
fore opened ; he stood and gazed
therein, and by that wicked
glance he began straightway to
be tormented, and at last,
stricken by the divine judgment,
he perished.

5. Ant. O martyr of great
merit, who so flourished in all
virtues, intercede for us.

Hymn. Deus tuorum militum.

Ad Benedictus Ant. Gloriosus
Dei Athleta, /Edmundus, per re-
giam dignitatem, insignem ob-
tinuit victorire palmam ; unde
mine fruitur societate ange-
lorum, senatu apostolorum,
contubernio martyrum, cujus
ergo precibus adjuvari Rex
Christe deposcimns. Alle. Alle.
Alle.

Antiphon at the Benedictus,
Edmund, the glorious cham-
pion of God, through the royal
dignity, won the glorious palm
of victory ; whence he now
enjoys the society of the angels,
the senatorial council of the
apostles, the fellowship of the
martyrs, by whose prayers there-
fore we ask to be helped, O
Christ our King. Alleluia.
Alle. Alle.

The antiphons and hymn of lauds were sung
Vespers, again at the second vespers. But the following

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 339

glorious invocation of the martyr formed the antiphon
at the " Magnificat : "

Ad Magnificat Ant. O Sane- Ant. at the Magnificat. O The Antiphou

tissimi Patris /Edmundi, incliti saintly renown of our holy father " Magnificat.'

regis et martyris, sancta pre- Edmund, glorious king and mar-

conia, qui factus victima Deo tyr, who, having become a victim

pro populo suo hodie assumptus to God for his people, was to-day

est sacrificiuni laudis in odorem assumed into heaven, a sacrifice

suavitatis ; hinc laus et gloria of praise in the odour of sweet-

Deo et Christo suo atqne Spiritui ness : hence praise and glory to

Sancto. Alleluia. God and to his Christ, and to the

Holy Ghost. Alleluia.

Besides the lections or lessons of the above office The Lessons of

the feast.

at least four other sets are extant. Those formerly
used in the Basilica Saint-Sernin were compiled from
the narratives of St. Abbo, William of Malmesbury,
and Matthew of "Westminster, the tradition of St.
Edmund's translation to Toulouse forming the sixth
lesson. In the " Propre actuel " of Saint-Sernin, the
lessons are the same as those in the supplement of
the English-Benedictine breviary, with the addition
of the Toulouse tradition. The lessons of the York
breviary, which the Surtees Society has published,
are of an ordinary type. The lessons of the Sarum The "Sanm.

Lessons.

breviary, compiled by St. Osmund, are probably the
most interesting of all those which were in use in
the medieval Church, and will form a fair specimen of
the style and tone of the rest. The old annalist of
St. Edmund's, Paris, in copying them into his
Chronicle remarks that, " though no more in use,
yet they show what veneration antiquity held St.
Edmund in." They run as follows :

Lectio I. Lesson I.

Provincise,qu;B et Anglia nun- Edmund, born of noble and

cupatur, prsefuit S. Edmundus ancient Saxon stock, ruled over

ex antiquorum Saxonum nobili the province which is called

340

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

prosapia oriundtis, qui a prim-
SBVO setatis tempore cultor
veracissimus fidei extitit chris-
tianse. Eodein tempore impius
Hinguar cum altero, Hubba
nomine, conatus est in extermi-
nium adducere omnea fines
Britannise.

Lectio II,

Idem vero Hinguar post mul-
torum interfectionem evocans
quosdam plebeios quos suo gladio
credidfb esse indignos, sciscita-
tus est ab eis ubi eorum Rex
tune vitam degeret : Audivit
enim quod rex Edmundus
fiorenti sctate et robustus viribus
bello per omnia strenuus esset.
Qui eo tempore morabatur in
villa qure Eglisdone nominatur.

Lectio III.

Consuevit enim eadem Dan-
orum natio nunquam palam cum
hoste contendere nisi insidiis
pnevento. Quapropter unum de
commilitonibus dirigit ad Ed-
mundum qui exploretur quse sit
ei summa rei familiaris. Ipse
autem cum multo comitatu sub-
sequitur, ut improvisum facilius
suis legibus subjugaret. Manda-
verat autem iniquse legationis
bajulo tyrannus iniquior ut in-
cautum taliter alloquatur :

Lectio IV.

Terrte marisque metuendus
Dominus noster Hinguar terras
subjugando sibi armis, sed hujus
provinciae optatum littus cum

Anglia. From his very child-
hood he was a most sincere
observer of the Christian faith.
At the same time the impious
Hinguar and with him another
named Hubba endeavoured to
bring destruction and ruin
through all the confines of
Britain.

Lesson II.

This same Hinguar after the
slaughter of many, calling to
him some of the common people
whom he deemed unworthy of
his sword, asked where their
king was tarrying. For he had
heard that King Edmund, then
in the flower of his age and in
fulness of strength, was in every
way vigorous in war. Edmund
at that time was halting at his
castle called Eglisdone.
Lesson III.

This same Danish nation would
never contend with an enemy in
the open field unless waylaid by
stratagem. Therefore he sent
one of his soldiers to Ed-
mund's camp, to find out the
greatest force at his command.
Hinguar himself with a numerous
retinue follows, in order the more
easily to subject him, if unpre-
pared, to accept his terms. The
bearer of the iniquitous message
was commanded by the more
iniquitous tyrant to address the
unsuspectingkingin these words:
Lesson IV.

Our lord Hinguar, terrible on
land and sea by the subjugation
of the nations by his arms, isnow
about to winter with many ships

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

341

multis navibus hyematurus
applicuit, mandaiis ut cum eo
antiques thesauros et paternas
divitias sub eoregnaturus dividas
vel morte morieris.

Lectio V.

Audito nuutio rex ingemuit,
consulens unum de episcopis
suis quid super his respondere
deberet. Qui timens pro vita
regis ad consentiendum pluri-
mis exhortabatur exeniplis. Rex
paululum conticuit, et sic de-
mum post multa devota verba
nuntio respondebat. Hoc dicas
Dfio tuo : Noveris quod amore
vitte temporalis, Christianus rex
Edmundus se non subdet pagano
duci, nisi prius compos eft'ectus
fuerit nostnie religionis.

Lectio VI.

Vix egresso nuntio, ecce Hin-
guar obvius illi jubet breviloquio
uti. Quo verba Regis referente,
imperat tyrannus circumfundi
omnem turbam servorum, ut in-
terius solumque Regem teneant,
quern suis iniquis legibus cog-
noverat jam rebellem. Tune S.
Edmundus capitur, et vinculis
constrictus sistitur ante ducem.

Lectio VII.

Tandem fatigatus acri in-
stantia, perducitur ad arborem
vicinam, ad quam adversarii
eum ligantes, sagittis confodi-
unt, in quo vulnera vulneribus
locum dabant, dum jacula ja-
culis imprimebantnr. Cumque

on tbe pleasant shores of this
province, and he sends, demand-
ing that you reign under him,
dividing with him your an-
cient treasures and ancestral
riches, or die the death.
Lesson V.

At this message the king
groaned within himself, as lie ask-
ed advice of one of his bishops
what he should reply. Fearing
for the life of his sovereign, the
bishop urged him to bend like
most others to the storm. For
a little while-the king was silent.
At length, after much devout
prayer, he replied to the mes-
senger : Tell this to your mas-
ter : Know that the Christian
king Edmund will not subject
himself for love of earthly life to
any pagan ruler, who has not first
become a follower of our religion.
Lesson VI.

Scarcely had the messenger
appeared, when Hinguar met
him, and ordered him to be brief,
On the report of the king's words
the tyrant commands all his
horde of followers to surround
the place and to keep the king
only inside, who, he knew, had
rejected his iniquitous terms.
Then St. Edmund is taken
prisoner, and bound with chains,
and brought before the chief.
Lesson VII.

At length, worn out by their
bitter persistence, he is led to a
neighbouring tree, to which his
enemies bind him : and they
transfix him with arrows.
Wounds gave way to wounds,
while arrow pressed arrow. And

342

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MA1ITYR.

nee sic a laude Dei cessaret inter
verba orationis capita truncatus
est.

Lectio VIII.

Dani vero relinquentes cor-
pus, caput in silvam recedentes
asportaverunt, atque inter densa
veprium fruteta occultarunt ;
quibus abeuntibus, Christiani
corpus invenientes, caput qufesi-
erunt : atque Ubi es ? aliis ad
alios in silva clamantibus, caput
respondit : Her, Her, Her, quod
est, Hie, Hie, Hie, nee ea re-
petere destitit, donee omnes ad
se perduxit.

Lectio IX.

Huic etiam miraculo Doininus
addidit aliud, dum coelesti thes-
auro insolitum custodem dedit.
Immanis siquidem lupus caput
sanctum inter brachia complec-
tens ab omnibus feris et avibus
intactum custodivit, et defer-
entes illud ad corpus usque ad
locum sepulchri, humiliter se-
quebatur. Quo cum corpore
sepulto, lupus nullum Isedens
ad silvam rediit festinanter.

when, even in these straits, he
would not cease from the praise
of God, his head was struck from
the body amid words of prayer.
Lesson VIII.

The Danes leaving the body,
carried the head into the depths
of the wood, where they hid it
in the thick undergrowth of
briars. When they had gone
away, the Christians finding the
body, began to search for the
head. And while they cried to
one another in the wood saying :
Where art thou? the head an-
swered : Here, Here, Here, —
nor did it cease to repeat that
word until it had brought them
all to itself.

Lesson IX.

To this miracle the Lord added
even another, by placing an un-
usual guardian over the heavenly
treasure. A savage wolf hold-
ing the sacred head within its
forefeet, guarded it untouched
from all wild beasts and birds,
and afterwards it tamely fol-
lowed those who bore it to the
body, even to the place of
sepulchre. When the body was
buried, the wolf, without hurt-
ing any one, speedily returned
to the forest.

Lesson for the The following lesson for the feast of St. Edmund's

feast of St.

totionnd>s trans" translation occurs in an old breviary in Clare College
Library, Oxford :

Anno ab incarnatione Domini In the year 1095 from our

millesimo nonagesimo quinto, a Lord's Incarnation, and the

passione Sancti Edmundi Regis 225th from St. Edmund the

et Marty ris ducentesimo vicesimo King and Martyr's passion, in

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYli.

343

tbe third indiction, during tbe
reign of William II. in England
and the pontificate of the vener-
able Herbert at Norwich, while
Abbot Baldwin presided over the
church of St. Edmund, Wakelin
bishop of Winchester, with his
attendants and other religious
and noble men of Eclmundsbury,
at the hour of terce, entering
the church, in pontitical array,
consecrated and blessed water,
and sprinkled it,it being Sunday,
the third of the calends of
May. Then after long prayer
ottered up by those standing
around, he uncovers the wooden
coffin in which the incorrupt
and venerable body rests. At
this point the said bishop began
the chant : This saint strove
for the law of his God even to
death and feared not the gibes of
the impious ; for he was founded
upon a firm rock. When the
shrine was opened so great a
fragrance of most sweet odour
issued from it that those present
thought themselves transported
to paradise. And thus took
place the translation of Blessed
Edmund the martyr's body in
the year and day above men-
tioned, to the great joy of the
people, for a perpetual memorial
to the whole English nation and
to the glory of all the saints, to
rise in time to come to everlast-
ing bliss.

quinto, indictione tertia, re-
gnante rege Willelmo in
Anglia secundo, venerabili viro
Herberto apud Norwicam pon-
titicante, et Abbate Baldcwyno
ecclesiam Sancti Ediuundi
tenente, Wakelinus Wintonien-
sis Episcopus cum bis et aliis
viris religiosis et honestis apud
Edniundisberi, tertio calendas
Mail, die Dominica, bora jam
tertia, intrans ecclesiam, more
pontificali, aquaiu consecravit
benedixit et aspersit. Deinde
detegitur locellns ligneus post
longam orationem a circumstan-
tibus factam, in quo inconta-
minatum ac venerabile quiescit
corpus. Sic dictus pontifex
liuniili voce incboans et psalmo-
diaus, Iste Sanctus pro lege Dei
sui certavit usque ad mortem et
a verbis impionun non timuit ;
f undatus enim erat supra tirmam
petram. Aperto monumento,
tanta ex eo odoris suavissimi fra-
grantia emanavit, nt quiaderunt
in paradisi deliciis se constitutes
existimarent. Transfertur ita-
que corpus incorruptum beati
Ediuundi Martyris anno et die
supradictis, ad magnam populi
l;etitiaiu,totius gentis Anglicana?
perpetuam memoriam, omnium-
que sanctorum gloriam, in futuro
resurrecturum ad beatitudinem
sempiternam.

All eleventh century manuscript in the Lambeth

hymns in honour

Library1 gives an addition to the rest of the office ofst- E'limin<<-

MS. 362, fol. 11.

344

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MA11TYK.

Hyiuu fur
Vespers.

Hymn for
Matins.

in the form of the following hymns for St. Edmund's
feast, which the Surtees Society has printed in its
collection of Latin hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church.1

Ad Vesperas.

Eadmundus martyr inclytus,
Anglorum rex sanctissimus,
Hac luce palinam nobilem
Triuniphans celos intulit.

Tulit jubar hoc splendidum
Opima tellus Anglica,
Quo splendet omne seculum
Et cells crescitgaudium.

Quorum murmur pauperum
Exaudiat sacrarium
Et ad celestis perferat
Regis plus causidicus.

Favorem Cbristi celitus
Nostris piaclis impetret,
Orbs ut gravata sentiat
Donativum indulgentise.

Precantum votis annuat
Pater Deus cum Filio,
Simul cum Sancto Spiritu
Per seculorum secula.

Ad Matutinum.
Laurea regni redimitus olim,
Rex Eadmundus, decus orbis

hujus,
Nuncsuisadsit famulis precamur

Supplici voto.

At Vespers.

Edmund, renowned martyr,
Most holy king of the English,
At this hour of even, the noble

palm of victory
Into heaven with triumph bore.

This brilliant radiance
The fertile land of England bore;
By it each epoch shines resplen-
dent,
And the joys of heaven increase.

The plaints of all the poor
May he our loving advocate
graciously hear [of Holies
And convey them into the Holy
Of our celestial King.

May he in heaven beseech
Christ's favour for our sins,
That the burdened world may
feel

The Lord's indulgent pardon.

[pray,
Grant the vows of those who

O God the Father, with the Son,
Together with the Holy Spirit,
Through the eternal ages.

Amen.

At Matins.

Once crowned with the wreath
of earthly power, [world,

King Edmund, glory of this
Now to be present with his ser-
vants we beseech
By suppliant vows.

1 Vol. 23. The editor has used MS. Cott. Vesp. D. fol. 116,
a twelfth century copy, instead of the Lambeth MS. The version
in the text has been collated with the older and more correct copy.
The ancient spelling has been retained.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

345

Hac die cell frnitur secretis This day he enjoys the secrets

Quatriuraphalemmeruitcoronam, of heaven ; [umphal crown,

Nactus ex Dani gladiis tyranni This day he merited the tri-

Sanguine pahnani. Having won from the swords of

the tyrant Dane
By his blood the palm of victory.

Cujus exsectuni caput ore prono His head, severed while his face

Trux lupus fovit famulatus illi,
Donee ad ustuni rediit cadaver
Vulneris expers.

Unde Rex martyr tibi magnus
heres, [purus,

Integer membris maculreque
Fungeris digno meritis hnnore
Talibus hymnis.

Sit honor Patri jugisetperhennis,
Qui tuossignisdecorattriumphos,
Cujus obtentu pins ipse pascat
Trinus et unus.

Amen.

Ad Ltiudes.
Laus et corona inilitum,
Jesu, tibi certantium,
Hnjus triumpho subditis
Intende regis martyris.

Hac rex Eadmundus die
Raptus cruento scammate,
Sese flagrorum stigmati
Celo receptus exuit.

Devinctus acri stipite,
Loris cruentis undique,

was bent,

A grim wolf attendant guarded,
Until it returned to the bereav-
ed body,
Then free from wound.

Whence, martyr king, our great
master [from stain,

Whole in all thy limbs, and free
Thou deservedly boldest honour
worthy of such hymns
As we now sing to thee.

Honour to the Father, always
and for ever, [triumphs.

Who by miracles adorns thy
At thy request may He Him
self most loving feed us,
Hewhoisoneandthree. Amen.

At Lauds.

O Jesus, glory and crown Hymn

Of those soldiers who strive for I'awls-

thee, [martyr

By the triumph of this royal
Bend thine ear to his subjects'

prayer.

On this day King Edmund,
Snatched away from the blood-
stained arena,

Rid himself of the lash's stigma
And was received by the hea-
venly court.

Fastened to the galling tree
On all sides bound by the blood-
stained thongs,

346

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK.

The ancient
" Mass."

tribunal execrat
Ac nuiueii ejus improbat.

Qui terebratus spiculis
liegis cruorem combibit,
Quern pro suis lidelibus
Velle niori conjicimus.

Nos hac Eadmundus die
Hex Martyr optet grade,
Qua perlruamur celitum
Bonis per oume seculum.

Amen.

He execrates the Danish court
And rejects its favour.

Now pierced with arrow-points,
He drinks the chalice with that

King

Who, we preach, willed to die
For his faithful people.

May Edmund king and martyr
On this day choose for us the

grace [things

By which we may enjoy good
Through all the heavenly ages.
Amen.

The ancient " Mass " for >St. Edmund's feast had
its own collect, secret and postcoinmunion, the same
as those still in use among the English Benedictines
with the exception of the few verbal differences
which are here noticed :

The Secret.

Collect.

Deus ineftabilis misericordine,
qui beatissimo regi Edmundo
(beatissimum regein Edmundum
— Sarum, Lambeth, St. Abbo ;
beato regi Edmundo — Propre
Saint-Sernin, 1672) tribuisti
iuimicum pro tuo nomine (pro
tuo nomine inimicum — Sarum,
Lambeth and St. Abbo) moriendo
vincere ; concede propitius huic
(huic omitted, Lambeth, St.

Abbo, Propre Saint-Sernin, 1672)
familiae tua? ut eo interveniente
mereatur in se antiqui hostis
incitamenta superando extin-
guere (incitamenta superare —
Propre Saint-Sernin, 1672). Per
Dominant.

Secret.

Hoc sacrificium redemptionis
(devotionis — St. Abbo and Lam-
beth) nostrae quaesumus Omni-

Collect.

O Uod of unspeakable mercy,
who hath granted to the most
blessed king Edmund, by dying
for Thy name, to conquer the
enemy, graciously give to this
Thy family, by his intercession,
the grace to overcome and ex-
tinguish in ourselves the incite-
ments to evil of our ancient
enemy, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, &c.

Secret.

Translation. In Thy clemency,
O omnipotent God, regard this
sacrifice of our redemption, and

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

347

potens Deus, clementer respice,
et intercedente beato Edmundo
rege et martyre (tuo— St. Abbo)
pro hac familia tua placatus
assume (per hoc nobis salutem
mentis et corporis benignus im-
pende — St. Abbo).

Poitcommunion.
Sint tibi Omnipotens Deus
grata nostrae servitutis obsequia,
et haec sancta quse sumpsimus,
intercedente beato Edmundo
rege et martyre tuo.prosint nobis
ad capessenda preruia vitse per-
petuse.

through the intercession of the
blessed king and martyr, Ed-
mund, favourably accept it in
behalf of this Thy family.

Posteommunion. The Post-

rr< j ., • •HT ii i communion.

Translation. May the homage

of our service be pleasing to thee,
Almighty God, and may these
holy oblations which we have
received, by the intercession of
Blessed Edmund king and

martyr, be profitable to us for
the gaining of the rewards of
eternal life.

The Church of Toulouse now uses this collect :

Deus, qui Beatum Edmun-
dum, per martyrii palmam, a
terreno principatu ad celestem
gloriam transtulisti, concede
propitius, ut quod ipsi pnestitit
inter tormenta constantiam ad-
versushostis antiqui incitamenta
nos fortes eliiciat nomen Domini
nostri Jesu Christ! Filii tui,
qui tecum vivit.

Translation. O God, who hath
translated Blessed Edmund, by
the victory of martyrdom, from
earthly sovereignty to heavenly
glory ; mercifully grant that the
name of Thy Son Jesus Christ,
which gave him constancy in his
torments, may make us strong
against the incitements of our
old enemy. Who with Thee, &c.

The following sequence, the composition of Monk A sequence.
William of Ramsey, is from the old breviary of Clare
College Library, Cambridge :

Profitendo fidem solam

Rex Edmund us suain stolam

Lavit Agni sanguine.
Signum factus ad sagittam
Penam necis exquisitam

Fert pro Christi nomine.

By professing the only faith,
King Edmund washed his stole

In the blood of the Lamb.
Made a mark for their arrows
He bore the searching pain of

death

For the name of Christ.

348

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Perforatur mille telis,
Decollator rex fidelis,

Pro grege fidelium.
Caput exit in loquelam,
Cui lupus dat tutelam ;

Prjedo patrocinium.

Sepelitur caro cresa,
Laniata sed illresa,

De sepulchro tollitur.
Sed pro nece sic allata
Vena quasi deaurata

Collo circumducitur.

Ungues ejus et capillos
Tondet anus ; stupet illos

Tot annis recrescere.
Opus furum inanitur ;
Judex perit ; rex punitur ;

Rota fertur aere.

Domus ardet sacerdotis ;
Claudi saltant, et regrotis

Praestantur remedia.
Qui sic fecit et medetur
Pronioveri nos dignetur

Ad sterna gaudia.

Amen.

He is pierced with a thousand

darts,
The faithful king is beheaded

For the fold of the faithful.
His head breaks out into speech,
Over it a wolf stands guard,

Aprowlingbeast its protection.
The slain flesh is buried,
Torn but unhurt,

It is taken from the tomb.
But for death so borne,
A vein like to a chain of gold

Is thrown around his neck.

His nails and his hair an aged

woman trims ;
She wondersthattheygrow again

So many years.
An attempt of robbers comes to

nought ; [punished ;

A judge perishes ; a king is

A wheel is held in mid-air.
The priest's house is consumed

with flames ;
The lame dance, and to the sick

Cures are granted.
May He who so works and cures,
Deign to advance us

To everlasting joys.

Amen.

TWO Prefaces. St. Abbo and the Lambeth manuscript give proper
prefaces for St. Edmund's day, the former a long
the latter a shorter one. These prefaces, in no way
inferior in sublimity and feeling to other compositions of
a similar nature, worthily complete the ancient
liturgical honours of the saint.

surviving Besides these pious records a few other memorials of

memorials of St.

Edmund. a devotion now rare have also survived. Hunstanton
perpetuates in its very name the gentleness and valour
of St. Edmund and his followers, x arid the tradition

See p. 50.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYK. 349

of their landing even now surrounds it. The
miraculous wells may still be seen bubbling from
the earth near St. Mary's in Old Hunstanton ; the
promontory sheltering the creek is called to this
day St. Edmund's Point, and near the light-house
which crowns it the foundations of St. Edmund's
chapel and retreat still remain. In many parts of
the eastern counties, other traditions more or less Traditions,
vague exist, confirming and supplementing chronicle
and record, though possessing no tangible memorial
of the martyr beyond his name, like Caistor St.
Edmund's, and the carved invocation " Ste Edmunde,
ora pro nobis," around the west-door of the old
church at Southwold. More interesting and definite,
however, are the ancient portraits of the saint, not- p01.t,.aits.
ably in the initial letter of one of the Lucca manu-
scripts, l in an old glass-painted window in Hardwick
House, near Bury, in the quatre-foil of the south
chancel window of St. James' church at Bury itself,
and among the saints in the frontispiece of Capgrave's
" Xova Legenda Anglire." Four busts of the saint
are also visible, carved on the helves of the panels
of the roof in St. Mary's church at Bury. One holds
a scroll or psalter ; another a sceptre in the right
hand ; the third has a sword in the right hand, and
a sceptre in the left ; the fourth holds an arrow in
the right hand and a sceptre in the left. Yates
writes that in one of the south windows of Merton
church St. Edmund is also represented in his regalia,
arrow in hand, with the kneeling form of Sir Robert
Clifton, Knt., at his feet, from whose mouth waves a
scroll having on it, " Sancte Edmunde, ora pro nobis."2

1 MS. Bibl., Canon., PI. ix. F. p. 102.

3 Yates' History of St. Edmund's Bury contains numerous plates
of other memorials of St. Edmund which existed in his day,
A.D. 1805, and among them two carved heads.

350 SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAK'iTK.

sculptures and The scene of the saint's martyrdom is found

pictures of the

legend of sculptured at the foot of Hugh of IN orthwold s tomb

St. Edmund.

in Ely cathedral, which he in a great measure built
during his episcopate,1 and the fretwork roof of St.
Edmund's chapel behind the high altar of Tewkes-
bury abbey church represents the same event.2 The
wolf guarding the martyr's head, which formed the
seal of the sacrist, Walter de Banham, 3 is sculptured
under one of the perpendicular windows of Moyse's
Hall at Bury St. Edmund's, and in Hoxne church
is a fine old poppy head carved with the same legend,4
while the Jesuits at Bury possess an antique sculpture
of the saint, with armour and spear, as he appeared
The v-'o pictures to King Sweyn. The hundred and twenty pictures

in Lydgate's . .

poem. in Lydgate s famous poem ° represent with the rich-

ness of mediaval illumination all the principal scenes
in the saint's history, together with a coloured
frontispiece of St. Edmund's banner,6 the arms, three
crowns d'or on azure ground, 7 the shrine with King
Henry VI. kneeling at it,8 the early miracles, the
building of the great church, and the translation of

1 Hugh was Abbot of St. Edmund's Bury, but died Bishop of Ely
in 1254.

2 Yates, p. 44. See also the seal of the friars of Norwich in the
same work, PI. vi.

3 Ibid. In this seal the wolf is under a tree, holding in its paws
St. Edmund's head.

4 Ibid., PI. i. and PI. ii.

5 Harl. MS. 2278.

6 See also the Camden edition of Jocelin's Chronicle, vol. 13, p.
183.

7 See also the initial letter in Dugdale's "Monasticon," vol. iii.
edit. 1821, p. 98, and Bloomfield's "Norfolk," p. 387, where the
author says that the arms which he gives are sketches from the
windows of Winfarthing church in Norfolk and were seen there in
1600, although all others except those relating to St. Edmund had
been defaced.

8 See also Dugdale's "Monasticon," vol. iii. edit. 1821, under
St. Edmund's Bury ; Knight's " Old England," vol. i. no. 463.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYU. 351

the incorrupt body. Part of the device of St. Ed-
mund's banner may also be seen carved on one of the
bosses in the north aisle of St. Mary's church at Bury.
Among all these relics of a past history the little
wooden church at Greenstead in Essex stands unique. Grcenst

cliurcli.

In antiquity it surpasses St.-Sernin, the martyr's modern
resting-place. Built of wooden planks in the year
1013 to shelter St. Edmund's body on its way from
London, it was preserved with care and reverence
till the sixteenth century. Then, being considered
valueless, it escaped the destruction which befell so
many venerable sanctuaries and has survived to
the present day,1 more happy in that respect than
the grander patrimony of St. Edmund, whose growth
and magnificence as a record of devotio^ to a hero
are treated of in the following chapter.

Lastly, the history of the devotion of ages to St.
Edmund carries pilgrim and antiquarian back to the Hoxne.
place of martyrdom. On the spot where the oak
grew to which the royal martyr was bound, rises a
memorial in the shape of a stone cross, on one side of
which is the inscription :

ST. EDMUND KING AND MARTYR, Nov. 20, A.D. 870.

OAK TREK FELL AUG., 1848, BY ITS OWN WEIGHT.

On the other side is inscribed :

THE TREE WHICH STOOD HERE IS SAID I'.Y TRADITION
TO HAVE BEEN TUB ONE AGAINST WHICH KlNG EDMUND
WAS SHOT. 2

1 See Knight's " Old England," vol. i. print no. 306 ; Palgrave's
" Antiquities of Norfolk and Suffolk," vol. i. p. 82; Suckling's
" Antiquities and Architecture of Essex," p. 4.

2 The late Sir Edward Kerrison, who erected this monument,
was not so happy in rebuilding the bridge over the Gold Brook, as
it is called, to perpetuate the fable that St. Edmund fled before
his martyrdom and hid under the arch of a former bridge, under
which he was discovered by his golden spurs.

352

CHAPTER XII.
St. Edmund's Patrimony.

[Authorities— In the 10th century the so-called Reformers wrecked all the great
libraries of England, and among them that of St. Edmund's Bury, and de-
stroyed or scattered their literary and historical treasures. Many of the
chartularies of St. Edmund's abbey, however, were saved and are now the
most numerous extant of any old religious house of England. Dugdale
(" Monasticon Anglieanum," vol. iii. p. 98, edit. 1821) devotes seventy-eight
folio pages to their enumeration and a digest of their contents. They supply
abundant material for a valuable and authentic history of St. Edmund's
patrimony, of which this chapter is intended to be only a sketch. Much
useful information is also contained in the " Antiquitates S. Edmnndi Burgi,"
Joannis Battely, S.T.D., Archidiaconi Cantuariensis, Opera Posthuma, Ac.,
Oxoniae : E. Theatre Sheldoniano, A.D. MDCCXLV. , which is printed and
published as a supplement to the "Antiquitates Rutupinae" (Rich borough)
of the same author. The ''Illustration of the Monastic Historv and Antiqui-
ties of the Town and Abbey of St. Edmundsbury," by the Rev. Richard
Yates, F.S.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge, <fec., <fcc., London, 1805, is also a
work of great antiquarian value. Both Battely and Yates illustrate their
pages with plans and sketches of the monastic buildings and their remains.
Gillingwater's " Historical and Descriptive Account of St. Edmund's Bnry,"
published in 1804, and now a rare book, contains many interesting notes on
the old abbey. Sir James Borrough's " History of Bury," Morant's " History
of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's," and Green's "Description of the
Ancient and Present iState of the Town and Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's,"
supplement other authors. William of Worcester, a native of Bristol, gives
the various dimensions of the abbey and its buildings, which he took himself
when on a visit to the abbey in the reign of the Sixth Henry (A.D. 1479.) The
"Annals" of Dom Bennet Weldon, O.S.B., preserved at the English College,
Douai, the "Chronological Notes" by the same author, edited by a monk of
Downside, the " Downside Review" of July, 1887, and the useful history of
the " Etablisseinents Religieux Britanniques Fondes a Douai, <fcc.," (Douai :
Lucien Crepin, editeur, 1880) supply most of the information required respect-
ing the modern patrimony of St. Edmund.]

Bury. THE town of Bury in Suffolk is the modern represen-
tative of the abbey and town which rose over and
around the shrine of East England's martyr king. It
staaids in the centre of that western division of the
county which was called the liberty, franchise or
patrimony of St. Edmund. Now, though only a
shadow of the magnificent past, having rejected even
the name of the saint to whom it owes its existence,
Bury is a bright and cheerful town, looking out
right smilingly towards the eastern sun from the

SAINT KOMUND, KING AND MARTYH. 353

grassy slope along which it stretches for a mile and

a half, and whose base is washed by the rivers

Linnet and Lark. Around, the alternate green and,

in autumn, the famous yellow barley frame its clean

brick houses and its ancient streets in emerald and

gold. The taste and feeling of the inhabitants have

considerably improved the natural beauty of the

town's position, and municipal enterprise has paved,

lighted and drained its wide streets and its numerous

and spacious squares. These advantages, enhanced

by the dry and invigorating air, the vicinity of the

University of Cambridge, the numerous schools and

civil and polite institutions, have combined to make

it a favourite resort for the refined and educated.

Only one feature casts a gloom over the scene. In

the midst of botanic gardens, bowling greens, private

lawns, fields and a few houses and public buildings, The site of tin

dark reefs of broken walls rise mournfully here and

there, to tell of the destruction of the abbey which

once towered to heaven on this spot.

On the east, the neighbouring waters reflect a ii.e ruin*
fringe of sable and mouldering ruins on their banks;
over the juncture of the two streams the dismantled
iirches of the abbot's bridge stretch their grim and
moss-covered masonry ; on the western slope, some
pieces of broken sculpture, a solitary pier or grass-
grown mound repeat the sad history of destruction
and sacrilege. Here a wall or window marks the
refectory, dormitory or guest house ; there the rising
ground the cloisters or chapter house of the second
largest abbey in England.1 Part of the old embattled
walls, two lofty sculptured and storied gateways,

1 For views of the ruins in 1745, see Battely's " Antiquitates S.
Edmundi Burgi " and Knight's "Old England," vol. i. prints 691,
692, 693. The "Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet" also
gives three views of St. Edmund's Bury.

354 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

two of the three magnificent churches which stood
attendant on the abbey church, still define the western
boundary of the monastic precincts.1
The remains <>r But amid these faint rays of a glorious past, the

the great church. -11- c .1 , i -T i. • v.

stranger looks in vain tor the great basilica which
canopied St. Edmund's shrine. A few straggling ruins
alone remain. A dilapidated tower converted into a
stable, and three defaced archways, originally the portals
of the church and now filled in with houses, alone mark
the western front. Eastwards in a private garden,
the bases of a line of pillars tell of the transepts
and their columned chapels ; and one broken group
of the stately piers, which supported the central
tower, stands solitary, hiding its grief under weeds
of sable ivy. These are the last remnant of the
high altar, the choir, the presbytery, and the
" Holy of Holies," where the martyr's body reposed
for centuries. No memory of the saint is perpetuated
in the place, but the great event in the history of
England due to his influence and that of the religious
house which guarded his tomb is recorded on one
A memento of of three tablets of stone. The sacrarium reqis is

the past.

forgotten, but the cunabula legis2 is commemorated
in the following lines :

NEAR THIS SPOT,

ON THE 20rra OP NOVEMBER, A.D. 1215,

CARDINAL LANGTON AND THE BARONS

SWORE AT ST. EDMUND'S ALTAR

THAT THEY WOULD OBTAIN FROM

KING JOHN

THE RATIFICATION OF

M AGN A CH ARTA.

1 See Willis' " Parliamentary Abbeys," vol. i. p. 8.
8 "The shrine of the king, the cradle of the law," the motto of
Bury town.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 355

" Where the rude buttress totters to its fall,
And ivy mantles o'er the crumbled wall,
Where e'en the skilful eye can scarcely trace
The once High Altar's lowly resting-place —
Let patriotic fancy muse awhile
Amid the ruins of this ancient pile.
Six weary centuries have passed away,
Palace and Abbey moulder in decay ;
Cold death enshrouds the learned and the brave ;
LANGTON, FITZWALTER, slumber in the grave.
But still we read in deathless records how
The high soul'd priest confirmed the Barons' vow ;
And FREEDOM unforgetful still recites
This second birthplace of our native Rights."

" Euina splendida," exclaimed Leland, just after the
dissolution, "quam quicunque intueatur, et admiretur
et simul commisereatur." — " Splendid ruin ! whoever
sees it admires and pities."

"This abbey, the owner and indeed the creator of TI.O ai.uty
*St. Edmund's town, itself owner of wide lands and Before the *

dissolution.

revenues,"1 at the beginning of the sixteenth
century " stood proudly eminent, surpassing almost
all the monasteries of England." - The old antiquary
Leland, on seeing its far-spreading cloisters and its
countless towers and spires rising to the sky, was
unable to contain his admiration. "The sun," he
wrote, "hath not shone on a town more delightfully
situated on a gradual and easy descent with a small
river flowing on the eastern part, or a monastery
more illustrious, whether we consider its wealth,
extent, or its incomparable magnificence. You might, ltsextL.llta)lll
indeed, say that the monastery itself is a town, so '"a^iflcence-
many gates there are, some of them of brass, so
many towers, and a stately church, than which none
can be more magnificent, upon which attend three
others also, standing gloriously in one and the same
church-yard, all splendidly adorned with curious
1 Carlyle. - William of Malmesbury.

o56 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

workmanship." These buildings covered twenty-three
acres of ground, not including the vineyard of six
acres and the "Walnut-tree yard" on the eastern
bank of the river Lark. A lofty embattled wall l

it* boundaries, and a deep ditch 2 bounded this area on three sides,
the two rivers on the fourth. Towering above the
walls rose the four majestic gates which led into
the precincts. The western boundary measured 1,100
feet, and presented a glorious frontage embellished
by two superb and stately gates and the facades of
St. James' and St. Mary's churches. The abbey-gate,3
62 feet high, ">0 long and 41 broad, led into the

The abbey great northern courtyard of the abbey. Ornamented

cnti-am-f. ,

with carved device, canopied niche and heaven-aspiring
pinnacle, it ranked as one of the most beautiful gate-
ways in England.4 Just within its archway an
outer portcullis, and 15 feet farther inwards gates of
massive iron and polished brass, defended the entrance.
Beyond the inner gates, in the inside wall to the right,
a doorway opened into the lodge, where the brother
porter and his deputy attended to receive strangers and
announce them to the abbot;5 and two staircases in

1 Built by Hervey the sacrist at the beginning of the 12th century.

2 Several instances occur of drowning in this ditch, which was
filled up about the year 1750.

3 The original gate was destroyed by rioters in 1327, and after-
wards re-erected by them in reparation for their offence.

4 This gateway has been well illustrated by Britton in his.
"Architectural Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 88 et seq. ; Morant and
others have minutely described it.

5 According to the regulations for the reception of guests, the
abbot, when at home, received all guests, whatsoever their condition,
except religious and priests of secular habit and their men. In the
absence of the abbot, the cellarer received all guests of whatsoever
condition up to 13 horses. If a layman or a cleric came with more
than 13 horses, the abbot's servants entertained them either within
the guest-house or without at the abbot's expense. All religious
men, even bishops who were not monks, were charged upon the

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 357

octagon corner-turrets led to the spacious chamber
above, where abbot or monks gave audience to illus-
trious guests.1 The guest-house, 25 yards long, with T)>««ue«t-)ious«.
its store-rooms, almonry and chapel of St. Lawrence,
extended along the western wall on the right of the
gateway.- A magnificent spectacle met the eye Thereat e.>m-t-

yanl.

from the Hat roof of the abbey tower, or from
its audience-chamber, as it ranged towards the
east. Below lay the " Great Court " of the abbey,
four acres in extent ; on the north of which
the stables and offices, 500 feet in length and The Babies

and ofti<.-es mi

.'50 wide, stretched east and west, cut off from the north.

oellary at the expense of the convent, unless the abbot wished to do
them special honour and entertain them in his own palace at his
own expense.

1 This reception room or audience-chamber is 50 feet by 30,
lighted on three sides by windows ; on the fourth side is a fire-place
and garde-robe.

- During Samson's abbacy Hugh the sacrist replaced the wooden
guest-house by one of stone, covering an area '25 yards by 11 in
extent, the expense being defrayed by "much of what Brother
Walter the physician had acquired by his practice of physic." In
this building was the large store-room, which the guest-master was
bound to keep well supplied with beds, seats, tables, towels and
similar articles ready for strangers and pilgrims, and also with bread,
beer and other necessary viands. The monk in charge of the gates
and the adjoining spacious and roomy guest-house introduced all
visitors to the abbot and convent, conducted them to the refectory,
church and cloisters, and procured for them every accommodation
according to their rank and character. The almonry was attended
by the almoner, who distributed the alms and charitable donations
of the convent to pilgrims, travellers and the poor, who came to
the abbey gate. On founders' days and other obits and anniver-
saries he gave out the fjifts, and he and his servants attended tho
dinner of the abbot and monks to receive from them whatever they
handed him from their portions. After their departure he could
collect what they left of their charity. He purchased annually
before Christmas cloth and shoes for widows and orphans and the
poor clergy. He renewed the mats in the choir cloister, &c., and
made other small provisions.

358 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

the court by an embattled wall. Here the abbot

lodged the horses up to 100, and the retainers

of any nobleman or prelate who visited the town,1

for at least one night without remuneration. The

north gate rose in the midst of, and above, the

offices, with the prison and hall of pleas at its side ;

The ceiiaivr's the store-houses, bakery, brewery and the cellarer's

beyond. house adjoined. Farther on lay the cellarer's yard

formerly the manse of Beodric, at whose north-east

corner the abbot's bridge spanned the united rivers.

The abbot's The abbot's "palace," 240 feet in length, occu-

lialace on the • i ,1 i n , -, i i

east. pied the east end of the abbey court, communi-

cating with the offices on the north and the
conventual buildings on the south.2 In the centre
a high turret facing the spectator contained the
staircase, which led from a lower chamber supported
by ten pillars to the abbot's dining-hall above. At
the back of the "palace" the abbot's two "garners"
stood, and a wall, which separated the abbot's garden
from the cellarer's yard, ran down to the "dovecote,"

ue'Vnd" or summer-house on the banks of the river. The

view on the east side of the abbot's palace carried
the eye over the abbot's garden down the river
Linnet, beyond which flowed the Lark. In the narrow

1 Part of the north wall of these offices remains, and their south
wall, which forms the northern enclosure of the court, is nearly entire.
Three entrances and seven windows may still (1872) be seen therein.
The stables and offices were thatched until Abbot Samson's time, but
with the assistance of Hugh the sacrist he stone-roofed them, " so
all peril and danger of fire was prevented."

- The abbot's palace, built by Geoffrey the sacrist in the reign
of Henry I., having been consumed by fire, was rebuilt by Hugh
the sacrist in 1155. From 1685 to 1688 the Jesuits seem to have
had a chapel and residence in it. It was used as a dwelling house
till 1720. On the southern side the crypt of the abbot's dining-hall
may still be seen. It is 55 feet long and 48 broad, including walls
5 feet in thickness. Ten pillars of an octagon form decorate the
inside. The base of the north-west turret may still be seen.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. 359

space between the two streams lay the six serpen-
tine fish-ponds, called the " Crankles." Across the
Lark and east of the cellarer's yard, the " Walnut-
tree yard " was situated, and to its right the
vineyard,1 laid out in regular walks and parterres.
Each was protected by its walls and the river Lark.

Along the south side of the great abbey court, J^^jf1*1
from the guest-house to the " palace " and beyond, court-
clustered a multitude of noble but irregular buildings,
turreted, pinnacled and carved, and presenting all the
appearance of a miniature medieval city. The "Mint," The "Mint."
where the monks had the right of coining from the
time of the Confessor, began this gorgeous line of
buildings, and ran contiguous to the western wall
at the right of the guest-house.

The monastery, "the magnificent and peaceful The monastery,
abode of religion," as Dr. Yates proclaims it, ex-
tended eastward from the mint to the very banks
of the river. First, the lesser monastery with its
grassy enclosure 2 lay, like the mint, in the protecting

1 Bought by the sacrist Robert de Gravel " ad solatium infirm-
(.rum et amicorum," A.D. 1221. A wall 22 feet high, and a hill gently
sloping to the height of 70 feet, sheltered it from the north, and
houses from the east, while to the south-west it is open to the
genial sun. In 1875 Mr. J. Darkin here grew to perfection in the
open air several varieties of foreign grapes.

2 Now known as the bowling green. As the "Lesser Monastery "
stood on the site of the chamberer's office mentioned in the deed
of grant to John Eyre, Esq., temp. Eliz. , and described by Jocelyn
(Gage's edit., p. 70) as a large hall with dormitories on the upper
storey, there can be no doubt about its position. The foundations
shown in old maps of a spacious edifice behind the east wall and
northern wall of the bowling green prove that a monastery existed
there. The old monastery in which Bishop Ailwin placed the Bene-
dictines was south-east of this, and removed by Abbot Baldwin to
make room for the nave and facade of the abbey church. To replace
the old monastery Baldwin built the " Lesser Monastery " in stone,
and probably also first built the great refectory. Abbot Robert II.
seems to have continued the refectory wing as a scriptorium and in-

360

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK.

shade of St. James' church. The new or greater mon-
astery came next in one long sweep which ran parallel
to the nave of the great basilica. Its west wing con-
tained the monk's " aula," or dining-hall, 171 feet in
length and 40 feet in breadth,1 surmounted by the dormi-
tory or cells. The east wing contained the scriptorium,
the infirmary and the infirmary chapel of St. Michael.
Between the greater monastery and the basilica the
kitchens and offices lay to the west, and to the east
the quadrangle of monastic cloisters. - The chapter-
house,3 the vestry 4 and the north transept of the

firmary. In process of time these two wings were rebuilt, probably by
< Geoffrey the sacrist, temp. Henry 1. 3 and they were called the New or
Greater Monastery. From Battely's mention of the New Monastery,
p. 27, and of the Greater Monastery, p. 63, they were evidently
one and the same. The great refectory adjoined the east end of the
Lesser Monastery and not the west end of the palace. When it
was burnt down by the great fire, Helyas the sacrist rebuilt it and
the other parts which had been destroyed in 1155, on the same
site. Many facts bear out this assignment of the refectory to
the west and the infirmary to the east. In building the refectory,
the kitchens which stood on part of the site of Ailwin's old monas-
tery would be retained, there being no signs or record of any others.
The position of the infirmary cloisters equally proves that the in-
firmary was in the vicinity of the abbot's palace.

1 In this great refectory the parliament of 1446 sat, whose object,
it is said, was to compass the death of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.

- These cloisters were built by Prior John Gosford.

3 The chapter-house was originally the work of Geoffrey the
sacrist. After the great fire, Hugh the sacrist rebuilt it, A.D. 1155.
In 1156 Abbot Anselm was buried in it. See Knight's "Old
England " for an ideal view of it, vol. i. print 696.

4 A writer in the "Tablet" of December 26, 1891, has tried to
give a description of the vestry of this great abbey and of its presses
and strong chests with then1 treasures of vestments, jewels and
objects of gold and silver. No inventory of them, however, exists,
and only from fragmentary notices can they be conceived. Yet
their value was so great that Walter of Diss, overwhelmed with
the responsibility of their guardianship, four days after his appoint-
ment to the office of sacrist, petitioned Abbot Samson to relieve him
from it, since he had not closed his eyes, nor could he rest or sleep

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. /{ftl

basilica adjoined the eastern cloister. The chapter- TIR ,-i,ai-ui
house, which measured 100 feet in length and 40 in library,
breadth, was surmounted by the library, which Hervey,
the brother of Prior Talbot, enriched with valuable

from anxiety. As the monks of St. Edmund carried out the
ceremonial of the Church with extraordinary splendour, they
required many " sets " of copes and other vestments. At times
eighty of the monks wore copes. On certain feasts a crowd of
priests and clerics joined the religious, and at the great offices, like
mass and vespers, were all clad in sacred vestments. From fifty to
a hundred masses were daily celebrated in the basilica, and for
these, the vestry presses supplied all the necessary sets of vestments
in every one of the church colours. To read of sets of ten, thirty,
or sixty copes is not then extraordinary. " The fragmentary
notices which remain," says the writer referred to, "afford at all
events some idea of that of which all exact record is now lost.
Here, for example, is the cope woven with gold, and the precious
chasuble given by Abbot Samson ; here the chasuble adorned with
gold and precious stones and a cope of the like set given to the
house by Abbot Hugh II., afterwards bishop of Ely. Then in this
press are kept the precious copes and silken hangings, and other
most noble ornaments provided by Abbot Richard I. (A.D. 122!)-
1234) ; and in this other the set of fifty copes and things belonging
thereto like albs, apparels, hoods and morses, which Prior John
Oosford had done so much to acquire. Then, to mention one or two
more instances, there were the vestments obtained at the cost of
£200 by John Lavenham ; the vestment brorlen cum botterflies d<'
natyn given by Dom Edmund Bokenham, chaplain to King Edward
III. ; the embroidered cope of Prior William de Rokeland ; the
precious cope bought for over t'40 (£400 of our money) by Prior
Edmund de Brundish ; the sumptuously embroidered cope given by
Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln."

The following is an example of the kind of plate the vestry kept :
the great chalice of gold, weighing nearly fourteen marks, the gift of
Eleanor, queen of Henry II. The convent had given it as a contri-
bution towards the ransom of Richard I. The queen-mother,
however, paid its value and restored it to the abbey on condition —
so the charter runs — that never again should it be alienated, but
kept as a perpetual memorial of her son ; a chalice of fine gold
weighing five marks, procured by the sacrist Hugh ; the cross of
gold given by Abbot Samson ; the third golden cross,, one of the
presents of Henry Lacy, which sparkled with precious stones
and contained a relic of the true cross ; a second cup of St. Edmund

862 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

manuscripts and Master Hugh ornamented most
gorgeously with his own hand. The cloisters led
to the " Abbot's Palace," which an open ambula-
tory also connected with the main building, so
that easy access might be had to and from
The mttnnary all parts of the monastery. The infirmary cloister,

cloister.

175 feet square, joined the north-eastern corner of
the chapter-house, and contained the lavatory, l a
splendid work of art, adorned with statuary and
coloured windows. The infirmary northern cloister
bounded the abbot's garden, while between its
southern cloister and the basilica lay the brethren's

house"01"" cemetery. 2 The " Prior's House " 3 and offices joined
the infirmary cloisters and stood east of the great

The Kith. church. Beyond, to the south-east, lay the bath,4

with a bowl of silver gilt and marvellous workmanship, which the
same Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, gave to the monks, asserting that
it once belonged to the royal martyr ; a pastoral staff of Abbot
Curteys, a work of art which did honour to John Horwell, gold-
smith, of London, who made it in 1430 in time for the feast of All
Saints. In the crook itself were two figured scenes, on one side the
Assumption, and on the other the Annunciation ; below the spring-
ing of the curve a richly ornamented niche enshrined the figure of
.St. Edmund, whilst below this again and forming the summit of the
staff, were twelve similar canopied niches, each containing a figure
of one of the apostles. This precious pastoral staff weighed 121bs.
94 oz., and the abbot paid £40 (£400) for it. This mere glance at the
vestry of a single monastery affords some idea of the devastation
which took place a few years later.

1 It was begun by Walter de Banham (Battely, p. 154), and
finished by Prior John of Gosford.

2 The monk's cemetery also extended to the south-eastern side of
the basilica. Here skeletons buried without coffins have been
frequently found, with small crosses of lead of divers form, most
of them inscribed " Crux Xti pellit hostem" on one side, and,
" Crux Xti triuphat," on the other.

3 Part of the foundations of this house was laid open a few years
since by the Suffolk Archaeological Society, and an accurate plan of
them was taken by Mr. John Darkin.

4 Excavated by Helyas the sacrist, about 1150, and filled up by
reformers about 150 years ago.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. 363

20 yards square, divided into apartments and fed
by the river Linnet. The strong wall, now in ruins,
with its buttresses diversely shaped to resist and
break the flow of water, here flanked the river for
some distance and thus protected the eastern build-
ings from the floods. The whole length of this
stately pile of monastic buildings, was overshadowed by
the massive towers, the spires and stretch of roof of
the abbey church. This church which stood guardian
over St. Edmund's shrine, was a vast Norman basilica Jhurcii'"T
dedicated to Christ, St. Mary and St. Edmund, came
next in capacity to Cologne cathedral, and ranked with
Amiens and York among the greater churches of Europe.
It was entered from the abbey by the east and west
cloisters which reposed under its shade. l The townsmen
and pilgrims approached by the Norman tower or " great The great ga

of St. Kdmun

gate of the church-yard/' 2 which immediately fronted church,
the western doors of the basilica and rose in three
storeys to the height of 90 feet over the wide and
lofty archway. In stately grandeur, in refinement
of decoration and proportion of parts, no Romanesque
work in England surpasses this Norman gateway.
On its western side, and projecting five feet from
the face of the tower, a porch of unique Norman
work rises to the height of 30 feet, and consists of a
decorated pediment covering an arch which springs
from three pillars. Two square and storeyed turrets

1 For ground plan and dimensions of the abbey church, see
Battely and Yates.

2 Abbot Baldwin erected this tower, which was the one that the
boy Samson saw in his dream. It still remains, and is 86 feet
high and 36 feet square, the walls being six feet in thickness, built
of rubble and faced with hewn Barnack stone. As usual with highly
finished Norman buildings, the stones are of a size which a labourer
could easily carry on his back to the top. The storeys are marked by
three string courses and arcades of arches, each line of arcading vary-
ing with each storey. It is now the bell-tower of St. James' church.

364 SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAIITYK.

flank the porch on each side. A sculpture repre-
senting our Saviour in an elliptic aureole filled the
great arch.1 In the archway a square-headed door-
way in the south wall marks the postern or porter's
gate. Here again gates of bronze and iron, opening
outwards, guarded the entrance. A newel stone
staircase in the north-west turret ascended to a
gallery above, which connected the small doors on
the north and south sides, and enabled the warders
to enter on the embattled walls which surrounded
the whole abbey and its grounds.
st. KJmun-vs Passing through this majestic entrance, the pilgrim

cemetery or

.-.hnrch-yani saw before and around him the great cemetery or
church-yard of St. Edmund, acres in extent, reaching
from his feet to the gardens and orchards which lay
at the far east on the banks of the river Linnet,
surrounded and dotted over with countless edifices,
churches, chapels, schools and residences for priests,
chaplains and abbey officials — the great cross of the
cemetery rising in the midst of all. Chapels dedicated
to St. Edmund, St. Andrew, St. John ad Montem,
and one called the Chapel of the Charnel, as well as
three churches, besides the vast abbey church, and
the houses and gardens attached to each chapel,
found abundant room within this extensive enclosure.2

with its dmrch The eye, wandering to the right, passed the line of

<>f St. Mary.

buildings adjacent to the western wall, to light on
the church of St. Mary, standing at the south corner,
in all its perfection and freshness ; for it was only
built at the commencement of the fifteenth century

1 It was removed in 1789 to pro vide freer access for " loads of hay
and straw" — fit simile of the destruction of the old religion.

- Up to the time of Abbot Samson the mystery plays, which
were the delight of the common people, and shows, wrestling and
other sports took place in the church-yard. In 1197 the famous
abbot stopped them, because of the broils and bickerings between
the townspeople and the abbey servants.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 365

in its present perfect perpendicular style, vast pro-
portions and beautiful delicate minuteness of parts.
On its north-west rose the tower. Inside the church a
long vista of slender columns, lofty, storeyed and
coloured windows, far-stretching aisles and nave, distant
chapels, and open timber roof elaborately carved and
gilded, would have met the gaze as it wandered
from St. Peter's aisle on the north to St. Mary's on
the south, and up the nave for 200 feet and more to
the Jesus aisle or chancel at the east, the great
west window all the while shedding its mellowed
light over the whole scene.1

At the east of St. Mary's church the buildings Kt Mal,r.u.t.t s
and residences of the clergy, who served it, clustered ^4.'e
and extended to the south gate, called St. Margaret's,2
beyond which stood St. Margaret's church,3 the largest st. Margaret's
of the churches, and described by Leland as of c
curious workmanship and remarkable for large and
beautiful traceried windows.

At the east of St. Margaret's church stood Abbot Alibot Salllsl>II-

schools.

1 Tymns' " Handbook of Bury-St. -Edmund's" gives a full descrip-
tion of this grand church. It still remains, though robbed of brasses
and tombs and much else that made it magnificent. It is altogether
213J feet in length, 68 feet in breadth and 60 feet in height. Its
roof is perfect, and probably the finest specimen in the world of
an open timber roof. Its west window is said to be the largest in
any parochial church in England and measures 3oJ feet high and
18J broad, clear dimensions. It would take the curious visitor
many days to inspect Jankyn Smith's chantry of St. John the
Baptist (A.i). 1480), his friend John Baret's Lady chapel, John
of Nottingham's porch (A.D. 1437), the countless helves, cornices,
corbels, bosses, spandrels, which are carved with the emblems of
the passion, legends and arms of St. Edmund and of the saints,
and the shields and mottoes of all England's highest nobility.

2 Removed in 1760.

3 St. Margaret's was not a parish church, and hence is sometimes
called a chapel. It existed in Leland's time, but no trace on record
survives to back up the traditions concerning it. It was built by
Abbot Anselni.

366 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Samson's schools,1 built in the early English style
with a Norman arched gateway, ornamented on each
side with niches with chevron moulding. The school
bordered on the abbey gardens.

The chapei of Of the chapels within the area of the cemetery,
that of the " Charnel " with " the pardoned grave " by
its side 2 held the most conspicuous place. Abbot John
of North wold founded it3 in 1301, the year of his
own death. The charter of foundation recites that,
" lately passing over the cemetery allotted for the
burial of the common people," the abbot had observed,
" not without sorrow of heart and pressure of vehement
grief," how very many of the graves had been violated
by the multiplied burials of bodies, and the bones of the
buried " indecently cast forth and left." He there-
fore directed this chapel to be built, " paved with stone
competently, that the exposed bones may be laid in
the cavity beneath reverently and decently." And
he decrees " that the place shall happily be rendered
most famous by the perpetual celebration of the
masses of two chaplains," 4 one of whom was to

1 In a deed of 1579 described as " the late gramer schole hall,
nowe the shire-house."

- In this part of the cemetery seem to have been laid those who
had received the plenary indulgence at the hour of death, or, as
non-Catholics writers put it, who had purchased remission of
purgatorial punishments. It seems to have been similar to the
"Pardon churchyard" on the north side of the charnel of old St.
Paul's cathedral in London.

3 The chapel was rated £6 for first fruits temp. Henry VIII.
It was a "common ale-house " in 1637, and complained of as being
also a " common nuisance." It was afterwards a blacksmith's shop.
Last it was designed for a family mausoleum by Mr. Alderman
Spink, who put up iron palisades round its ivy-covered walls and
planted the enclosure with shrubs. The entrance to the crypt was
discovered in 1844. The stairs had disappeared, but the floor was
found paved with Barnack stone and covered to a depth of two feet
with bones.

These two chaplains were endowed "with the whole profit of

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 367

carry the pastoral staff before the lord abbot on
public occasions and in processions.1 Prior William
of Rokelond provided a third chaplain 2 to say mass
in the venerable Chapel of the Charnel.

The spectator still standing within the great gate
of the cemetery, having made a survey of the southern
precincts, now turns to the left to view St. James' st. Jam
church, which stretches from the great gate 193 feet
eastwards. Most exquisite tracery and delicate sculp-
ture ornamented the windows and walls of this
beautiful edifice. Altars to St. Anne, St. John, St.
Lawrence, St. Mary, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Stephen
and St. Thomas a Becket stood in all their rich carving
under its open cinque-foiled and decorated timber-
roof.3 At the west of its south aisle, called St.
Mary's, was situated the popular altar and chapel
of the Holy Name of Jesus, and in the south porch our
Lady's chapel with its doors of brass. Statues and
pictures adorned the walls, like that of St. John the
Evangelist in the chancel, and of St. James and the
Virgin Mother and the picture of the " Salutation " in
the north aisle, where the guilds of St. Botulph and of

the ministry or office of the clerk serving with us of our pastoral
staff, which is called the Staphacres," i.e., the crop of an acre of
corn in various manors around the town ; and the number of
chaplains were to be increased as the amount of alms and legacies of
the faithful would admit. They were only removable " for incurable
infirmity or evident honest cause," and then to be maintained in the
hospital of St. Saviour, unless " overspread with such a contagious
disease, that among other men he or they cannot decently keep
company, and then in the hospital of St. Peter or St. Nicholas. "

1 The charters appointing the principal chaplain or ciistos, ' ' to
the free chapel called Le Charnell," provided that " he or his
honest deputy should carry before the lord abbot his pastoral staff,
on the usual occasions and according to ancient custom."

3 A house in Bernewell Street, now College Street, was assigne
to the three chaplains for residence.

- The roof was extremely similar to that of Burwell, Cambs.

068 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Jesus held their meetings, under the bright and
coloured light of the saints of the old and new
testament, who looked down from the storied windows-
St. James' church l with its many chapels and
altars stood in the shadow of the west front of
the abbey church, which rose straight in front
of the great gate, and surpassed in glory and magnifi-
cence all that existed in the other churches.

" For if the servants we so much commend,
What was the mistress whom they did attend ! "

The lofty roof, massive towers and tapering pinnacles
of this " Great Church " rose high above all other
buildings and formed a conspicuous landmark to all
the country round, being the very centre of the far-
spreading lands and houses. All other churches,
chapels, and chantries, cloisters, halls and gates per-
force paid it lowly homage. Its west front, 250
feet wide, with three lofty arched portals and two
lower ones, rivalled that of Peterborough. A high
us western and massive bell-tower, supported by two lateral

towc-rs.

towers, as in present Ely cathedral, stood majestically
in the centre of the facade, and western transepts,
also imitated at Ely, flanked by low octagonal
towers 30 feet wide inside, completed the broad and
imposing frontage. At the end of the nave-roof
its cusuin a l°fty chancel tower and two lower towers rose to the
sky, massive and solid, from which the transepts
to the north and south, and the apse to the east
branched out, completing with the nave the church's
cruciform shape. From contemplating the exterior,
the pilgrim passed under one of the sublimely

1 The church of St. James still stands, and in one of its aisle
windows some of the old glass, containing figures of David, Abia
and other scripture kings, may be seen.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 369

arched and pointed l doorways through the skilfully T1>e interior,
chiselled gates of beaten bronze within the basilica
itself. The long western transepts lay on his right
and left, the two apsidal chapels of St. Catherine and
St. Faith being at their eastern corners. Before him
the dim and columned nave, the largest of any church
north of the Alps except old St. Paul's, stretched in
an unbroken length of 500 feet.2 A scene of unexam-
pled beauty and solemness broke upon the vision.
Between the twelve bays formed by the huge Norman
columns, in transept and apse glimmered the lights
at altars and in chapels too numerous to name, for The numerous
eighty priests of the abbey, as well as those who came
in pilgrimage, required altars on which each might
daily offer the great Christian Sacrifice. The painted
vaulting — that of the choir by " Dom John Wodecroft,
the king's painter,"3 and that of the nave, to match,
by the sacrist John Lavenham 4 — relieved the massive
Norman architecture, while the clerestory and aisle
windows and the distant windows of choir and apse,
filled with painted glass, the gifts of kings and nobles,
brought the court and glory as it were of heaven into the

1 They were originally three great Norman archways, but
seem to have been changed for pointed ones before the 14th
century.

2 See letter of E. B. Denison, Esq., in the "Times," Sept. 1,
1871. Its length was 505 feet, the nave was 33 feet broad, the
upper transepts 246 J feet from north to south. It thus surpassed any
other church or cathedral at the time of its erection. The follow-
ing are the lengths of some of its rivals, after additions had been
made to them : Durham, 414 feet ; Winchester, 545 ; Canterbury,
514 ; Salisbury, 474 ; Westminster, 489 ; York and Lincoln, 498 ;
Ely, 517 ; St. Alban's, 600. Norwich cathedral, including the Lady
chapel at the east end, could have been placed within St. Edmund's
church with many feet to spare all round it.

3 A.D. 1279-1301, in the days of Abbot John I. de Northwold.

4 A.D. 1370. John Lavenham spent £50,000 of our money in
beautifying the church.

A A

370 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

scene. Six clusters of pillars, l springing from the tiled
pavement, soaring aloft, upheld the chancel lantern
tower, which cast down rays of light upon the high

The high altar, altar with its silver base and porphyry table,
presented by Pope Alexander III. to Abbot Baldwin.
The altar screen with side doors leading beyond, and
all adorned with paintings by Prior Edmund Brandish,

The choir and surrounded the altar. The choir and presbytery
extended behind the altar, and was so magnificent,
so glorious, so gorgeously rich even in Herman's
time, that he compared it to Solomon's temple and
testified that many pronounced it the most costly
temple to God they had seen. The oak carved stalls
of the monks extended from pillar to pillar, and in
their midst, in the centre of the apse,2 stood the price-

Tiie martyr's less shrine of the martyr on its gothic stonework base,
glittering with gold and gems and lighted tapers, and
surmounted by a coloured and pictured baldachin.
On the east, at the head of the saint, two small
columns supported a smaller shrine containing the
relics of Abbot Leofstan and others, whilst at the feet
of the saint were the shrine of Abbot Baldwin and
the altar of the Holy Cross. " Oh, how worthy was
this spot, in which so great a witness of Christ reposed,
apparently asleep ! " 3 An opening at the most eastern

The east end. ?r J

point of the choir brought the pilgrim face to face
with the three apsidal chapels of the east end.
The centre one was the chapel of the relics ; the other
two had been built in honour of St. Thomas and to

1 Abbot Baldwin originally intended the two easternmost piers
to support that side of the central tower, but Abbot Robert, his
successor, deciding to lengthen the choir one bay, left the intended
tower piers standing, and built four others towards the west.

2 It was placed there by Abbot Baldwin in 1095, and never after-
wards removed, except to a new stone base in 1198.

3 St. Abbo.

SAINT KDMUND, KING AND MAUTYK. 371

receive the shrines of St. Firminus and St. Botulph,
which once stood attendant on St. Edmund's shrine.
The stranger, passing by many a sculptured chapel,
screened chantry and recumbent tomb of holy and
illustrious dead,1 next visits the transepts, 246 The eastern
feet from north to south, and crossing the nave under
the chancel tower. A single row of columns on the
east side of each formed aisles, and divided the
main part from the side-chapels. Apsidal chapels
projected eastwards at the extreme corners, and the
" pity rood " or " ruby rood," a copy of the " Santo
Volto" which Abbot Leofstan brought from Lucca,
adorned that near the south door. The Lady
chapel, 80 feet long and 42 broad, adjoined the
north transept, and ran eastwards parallel to the choir
aisle, while the chapel of St. Andrew corresponded
with it in the south transept. By a side-door
in the north transept the visitor entered the east
cloister of the monastery, and thence descended to
the crypt — St. Mary in cryptis, — which extended The C1.yrt
under that eastern limb of the church which was
occupied by the shrine of St. Edmund and its mag-
nificent surroundings. The crypt was a veritable
underground church, 100 feet long and 80 broad,
its vaulted roof being supported by 24 polished
marble pillars.2 In its centre welled up a fountain
of crystal water.3 Three apsidal chapels 4 corresponded

1 The bare enumeration, says Tymms, of the royal and noble
persons who found their last resting-place within these walls would
occupy many pages. He then proceeds to give a few names of
earls, dukes and princes buried there, ending with Mary Tudor,
sister of Henry VIII. and queen of Louis XII. of France.

- Probably Purbeck marble.

3 There seems to have been a baptismal font connected with this
spring. The font with its lofty canopy is now in Worlingworth
church.

4 The foundations of these chapels were laid open in 1849, during

372 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

with those in the church above, the centre one
being dedicated to St. Mary, that to the south
to the Holy Cross and that to the north to St. Saba.
Chapels to St. Anne, St. Botulph, Abbot of Bamsey,
and St. Lawrence also adorned the undercrofts. The
pilgrim ascends once more to the abbey cloister,
having finished his tour of what an ancient writer
describes as " the magnificent pile of many kings, built
of hewn stone by masterly hands of many ages, and
elevated with lofty columns ornamented with marble ;
shewing in the texture of its vaulted roof, under the
mortal image, the countenance of heaven. Why
should I recount the walls terminated with battle-
ments ? Why should I extol the towers with folding
doors, and in their turn the many interior buildings,
rearing with united roofs their pinnacles to the
clouds ? You might call it a beautiful city within
a small space." l

st. Edmund's Around this majestic pile, St. Edmund's town
clustered. In the course of ages many circumstances
had contributed to the growth of the borough. What
were plough-lands, for instance, in Edward the
Confessor's reign, were covered with houses under the
Norman rule, when the building of the great church
drew craftsmen and masons to the place and mingled
them with the plough-men and reapers of the abbey
domains. Serfs, traders, Jews and fugitives from justice,
or their lord, sought protection in rough times under
the strong hand of St. Edmund,2 and having found it,
settled down under the convent rule, so that long

some excavations undertaken by the Suffolk Archaeological Institute.
The northern one had some fragments of encaustic tile pavement
and the lateral supports of a stone altar. The sedilia for the
officiating priests were still observable.

1 Quoted by Yates, p. 1 76.

2 Green's " Short History of the English People," edit. 1877, p. 90.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 373

before the fifteenth century the space within the
walls was filled with the houses of the burgesses.
And judging from the size and number of the parish
churches and the pious bequests made to them, and
from the reception accorded to kings and high func-
tionaries, the population was not only large but well-to-
do. At every step wealthy homes, hospitals, halls,
convents and schools met the wayfarer. A wall guarded
by five gates surrounded the town. At each gate a
canopied niche enclosed a statue of our Lady, before
which lamp or candle constantly burnt. Near each
gate a hospice or religious house, for the entertainment
of pilgrims, had also been established, and a chapel
or oratory to the tutelar angel or saint of the
entrance.

Over the town, and within the four crosses which The abbot's

power over it.

marked its boundaries, the abbot held supreme juris-
diction. All civil and criminal causes came to his
court. He had his own prison, and, saving the rights
and privileges which the citizens had won or bought
from the monks, and which were embodied in their
charters, his power was absoluta His spiritual
jurisdiction within the crosses which stood a mile His spiritual
in each direction from the martyr's tomb, was that
of an abbas nullius, or one subject to no bishop save
the bishop of Rome. l Only a legate a latcrc, or the
visitor appointed by the English-Benedictine general
chapter, could officially inspect the monastery and
its dependencies. 2 Like a bishop, the abbot of St.
Edmund's could wear the tunic and dalmatic and
bestow the solemn blessing with mitre on head and

1 Even an abba* nulliits not having episcopal consecration was
obliged to call in a bishop for ordinations and other strictly
episcopal functions.

2 Hence the abbot of Hulme, deputed by the general chapter
held at Northampton, visited the abbey in 1441. (Yates, p. 114.)

374 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

crozier in hand. He appointed the parochial clergy
in his jurisdiction, and monks, priests and chaplains
owed obedience to him according to their order. One
restriction, however, was placed upon the abbot.
He had no power to tax the borough without the
will of the convent, for it belonged to St. Edmund
and his altar, and all the profits from it pertained to
the convent ; unless they voluntarily granted them to
the abbot, to the burgesses or to the king. Accordingly,
the horn called the mote horn and the keys of the
town were every year on St. Michael's day delivered
to the sacrist in the chapter-house by the town
bailiffs ; the sacrist delivered them to the prior, who
in the same way, through the sacrist, returned them
to the town authorities. This observance took place
annually, in order to assert the right of the convent
over the town, so that, during the vacancy of the
abbacy, the king should not take it into his own
hands with the abbot's temporalities.

The abbatiai No limit, however, restricted the abbot's temporal
rule outside the limits of the town. Like St. Cuthbert

in the north, St. Edmund held an extensive franchise
in the east. His possessions embraced a third of
Suffolk, besides manors and farms in a dozen other
counties, and over these the abbot had quasi-regal
rights. The consequent wealth and influence made
him a baron of the realm, with the privilege of sitting
in parliament with other spiritual peers.

The wealth of The wealth and possessions of St. Edmund were
the accumulated growth of centuries. The same
principle which induces men now-a-days to erect
memorials to Prince Albert, or General Gordon,
animated St. Edmund's clients to bring their gifts
of gold and land to the monks, the guardians of
their hero's tomb. In the course of ages these sub-
stantial expressions of devotion or gratitude to St.

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYH. 375

Edmund brought in a yearly revenue of £200,000 Its annual

revenue.

of our money. Yates, who wrote in 1804, ventures
the statement that the possessions of the monastery
produced an annual income of £500,000. Weever1
places St. Edmund's Bury as second only to Glaston-
bury in wealth, privileges and power. He says: "If
you demand how great the wealth of this abbey was,
a man could hardly tell, and namely how many gifts
and oblations were hung upon the tomb alone of
St. Edmund; and besides there came in out of lands
and revenues a thousand, five hundred and three
score pounds (£1,560) of old rent every year." The
commissioners of Henry VIII., however, put its
annual value at £2,336, or below that of St. Alban's
and Canterbury, implying that at the height of its
prosperity its ample endowments held only the fourth
rank among those of the ecclesiastical and monastic
establishments of England. It is well known, how-
ever, that Henry's agents were not too scrupulous in
their reports, nor too accurate when the figures
would tend to their own interests, and hence little
reliance can be placed on their statements. In 1278
the monastery, in paying subsidies to the king,
admitted a yearly income of £10,000, which, put into
modern money, more closely approaches the estimate
arrived at by Yates and others.

Such then was St. Edmund's patrimony 700 years A summary,
after its beginning, 500 years after the introduction
of the Benedictines and just before its final ruin.
Thirty-three abbots had held its pastoral staff, many
of them illustrious for holiness and learning ; monks
famous for scholarship and skill in the fine arts had
found refuge in its abbey ; 2 and great men of the

1 " Funeral Monuments," pp. 463-4.

2 Some of its most celebrated men were : — Abbot Baldwin
(1097) ; Abbot Samson (1211) ; Abbot John of Northwold, annalist

376

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

unimportance

of the place

st. sigebei-t's
°

realm, kings, noblemen, merchants and honest towns-
men, considered it a mark of distinction and honour,
to be enrolled in the fraternity of the guardians of
St. Edmund, or to have allotted to them a grave near
his shrine.

The magnificence of its buildings, the extent of
^s possessions, the sacredness of its precincts hallowed
by the continuous chant of the choir, the solemn
round of holy services, the daily masses and pro-
cessions, and the ceaseless stream of pilgrims during
its long tenure of prosperity, all owed their origin and
strength 'to the name arid power of St. Edmund.
Some have, indeed, imagined that the spot had first
been consecrated to druidical worship from the tradi-
tion of the procession of the white bull, l and from the
Saxon name Beoderics-gueorth, meaning a chief spot for
worship.* Others have fixed upon it as the Villa
Faustina, the prosperous toivn, or the Villa Faustini,
the seat of Faustinus, of the Iter of Antonine, but
accurate measurements do not bear out their theory.
Others again connect it with the Roman Bericus,
whom Suetonius mentions in his account of the
emperor Claudius, the first real conqueror of Britain.
We reach firm ground, however, in the reign of St.
Sigebert, who founded a monastery and church on
the spot in honour of St. Mary ; in that monastery

and voluminous writer (1301); Abbot Hugh of Northwold, after-
wards bishop of Ely ; Prior Roger, the computist (1360) ; Jocelinof
Brakelond, chronicler (1214) ; John Eversden, poet, orator, historian
(1336); Edmund Bromfield, bishop of Llandaff (1389); Boston de
Bury, author and bibliographer (1410) ; John Lydgate, rhetorician,
mathematician and poet (1446). Abbot John Melford or Reeve,
who survived the destruction of the monastery only a few months.

J An old custom of the townspeople.

2 Sir Henry Ellis derives this meaning from the Saxon bede,
"prayer," rice, "power," or "authority," as in "bishopric," and
ivorth, a " town."

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR. 377

he laid aside his crown and devoted himself
to a religious life. Afterwards, about the time of
St. Edmund — so the old charters and registers have
it, — being a royal town, it descended to one of
royal blood named Beodricus. Beodricius, or Beodric,

Beodnc's.

who gave it to King Edmund. Whether Beodric
bequeathed it to the saint before or after the martyr-
dom is uncertain. More probably he offered it to
Bishop Wilred, when that prelate was seeking some
secure and permanent resting-place for the holy king's
remains. No spot was more suitable for church,
tomb and monastery, than King Sigebert's royal
town, then known as Beodrics worth, or Bcodric's
estate. So Etheiing Beodric surrendered it, and Ed-
mund took possession of the fief, over which he
exercised undisputed suzerainty for six hundred years.
For centuries it retained its name of Beodrics worth.
In course of time, however, the people called it
Kingston and Edmundston, St. Edmund's burg, borough,
or town, and lastly St. Edmund's Bury ; not because
St. Edmund was buried there, but by reason of the
splendour of the place, the word bury in Anglo-
Saxon signifying "court" or "palace." Carlyle ex- Car]y]e on the

i • , i • c J/L. i • ii growth of St.

plains the growing importance of the place in the Edmund's
following words : " Edmund was seen and felt by
all men to have done verily a man's part in this
life-pilgrimage of his ; and benedictions, and out-
flowing love and admiration from the universal heart,
were his meed. Well-done ! Well-done ! cried the
hearts of all men. They raised his slain and martyred
body; washed its wounds with fast-flowing uni-
versal tears ; tears of endless pity, and yet of sacred
joy and triumph Oh ! if all Yankee-
land follow a small good ' Sclmiispel the distinguished
novelist' with blazing torches, dinner-invitations,
universal hep-hep-hurrah, feeling that he, though small,

378 SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MARTYB.

is something ; how might all Angle-land once follow
a hero-martyr and great true son of heaven ! " It
is natural to man to worship, but it is a humiliat-
ing fact that he oftentimes worships mere empty
nothings — " Kings' progresses, Lord Mayors' shows and
other gilt-gingerbread phenomena of the worshipful
sort," with other heroes of doubtful character — " these
be thy gods, 0 Israel!" Is not Edmund better and
nobler than these ? The modern world enshrines
its heroes under the dome of St. Paul's, in the aisles
of Westminster abbey, or beneath the monument and
flowers of the suburban cemetery, and even bequeaths
legacies that posterity may keep up the worship.
In similar manner but more reasonably "did the
men of the eastern counties take up the body of
their Edmund, where it lay cast forth in the village
of Hoxne ; seek out the severed head, and reverently
reunite the same. They embalmed him. . . . with
love, pity, and all high and awful thoughts : con-
secrating him with a very storm of melodious adoring
admiration and sun-dyed showers of tears ; joyfully
yet with awe (as all deep joy has something of the
awful in it) commemorating his noble deeds, and
God-like walk and conversation while on earth ; "
till at length all good men, bishops, priests and
people, the Pope of Home approving, pronounced
that he had in fact led a hero's life in this world,
" and being now gone, was gone to God above and
reaping his reward there."

" The rest of St. Edmund's history, for the reader
sees he has become a saint, is easily conceivable.
Pious munificence provided him a loculus, a feretrum
or shrine ; built for him a wooden chapel, a stone temple
ever widening and growing by new pious gifts ; —
such the overflowing heart feels it a blessedness to
solace itself by giving. St. Edmund's shrine glitters

SAINT EDMUND, KING AND MAKTYK. 379

now with diamond flowerages, with a plating of
wrought gold. The wooden chapel, as we say, has
become a stone temple. Stately masonries, long-
drawn arches, cloisters, sounding aisles buttress
it, begirdle it far and wide. Regimented companies
of men. . . . devote themselves in every gene-
ration to meditate here on man's Nobleness and
Awful ness, and celebrate and show forth the same,
as they best can ; thinking they will do it better
here, in

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Full text of "Saint Edmund king and martyr : a history of his life and times with an account of the translation of his incorrupt body, etc, from original mss"

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